Curt Cignetti Gets Indiana Football Contract Raise, to Earn Over $13 Million Annually

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana and Curt Cignetti have agreed on a raise that gives Cignetti the highest-known salary among college football coaches, an Indiana Athletics spokesperson confirmed Friday to Indiana Hoosiers On SI.

The Indianapolis Star and Bloomington Herald-Times first reported the news.

Cignetti secured a contract worth $13.2 million annually, which puts him past LSU's Lane Kiffin at $13 million annually and right around Georgia's Kirby Smart, who earned $13.282 million in 2025, for the nation's largest known salary.

Since the announcement of his hiring as Indiana's head coach Nov. 30, 2023, Cignetti has signed four total contracts, each containing significant pay raises. Here's a look at the rise of his salary at each contract:

Nov. 30, 2023: Six years, $4.5 million annually
Nov. 16, 2024: Eight years, $8 million annually
Oct. 16, 2025: Eight years, $11.6 million annually
Feb. 20, 2026: No extension, $13.2 million annually

Cignetti has engineered the greatest turnaround in college football history. He inherited the losingest program in the sport, fresh off a 3-9 record in 2023, and took Indiana to the College Football Playoff in 2024. The Hoosiers went 11-2 in Cignetti's first season, which immediately became the best in program history.

Then, Cignetti delivered an inconceivable encore.

Indiana went 16-0 in 2025, becoming the first team in modern college football history to do so and the first since Yale in 1894. The Hoosiers won their first Big Ten championship since 1967 and first ever national championship.

While leading Indiana to heights never previously imagined, Cignetti has filled his own trophy case, too. He's the back-to-back Associated Press Coach of the Year and Big Ten Coach of the Year, and he's earned the same honor from several other outlets, including the American Football Coaches Association, Walter Camp and Sporting News.

Cignetti and the Hoosiers have the ingredients to sustain success next season. Indiana returns several key players from its national championship-winning team and brought in one of the nation's best transfer portal hauls, headlined by quarterback Josh Hoover and receiver Nick Marsh.

What Cignetti's contract means

By once more meeting the fast-rising price of Cignetti's worth, the Hoosiers' administration — led by Indiana University President Pamela Whitten and athletic director Scott Dolson — continues to show its commitment to keeping Indiana football among the sport's elite programs.

Cignetti has established himself as perhaps the best coach in the country, and his contract shows as much. Indiana's athletic department has provided the financials necessary to keep Cignetti in Bloomington, and both sides remain, clearer than ever, aligned with each other.