Buyout, Incentives of Eli Drinkwitz's New Contract Revealed

The details of Drinkwitz's six-year contract extension have been revealed.

Aug 28, 2025; Columbia, MO, USA; Missouri Tigers head coach Eli Drinkwitz stands on the field before the start of their matchup with the Central Arkansas Bears in Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium. | Cal Tobias/MissouriOnSi

One of the biggest dominoes in the college football coaching carousel fell on Thanksgiving, with Eli Drinkwitz agreeing to a six-year contract extension with Missouri. The details of the extension were posted to Mizzou Athletics' website Monday.

The extension puts Drinkwitz firmly inside the top-10 highest-paid coaches in college football. Over the six-year deal, the average salary is set at $10.75 million. That starts at $10.25 million in 2026, and is set to raise by $200k each year, climbing to $11.25 million in 2031.

Interestingly, Drinkwitz's contract includes a clause where he can earn a one-year extension if Missouri wins eight regular season games. That extension would also include another raise of $200k in the added year.

Drinkwitz's buyout begins at $5 million, a price that will hold until on or before Dec. 1 of 2026. The buyout resets each year on Dec. 1. It will be set at at $4 million until Dec. 1 of 2027, $3 million in 2028 and 2029, $2 million in 2030 and $1 million until on or before Dec. 1 of 2031.

On his previous contract, his buyout was set at $5 million until Dec. 1. Then, it was set to decrease to $4 million from Dec. 2, 2025 to Dec. 1 of 2027. Then starting from Dec. 2, 2027 until Dec. 1, 2028, the buyout would've been set at $3 million. From Dec. 2, 2028 through the remainder of the contract, it would've been set at $1 million.

The deal also include various incentives that could reach a maximum of $2 million each season. These incentives include benchmarks in the team's social/academic achievements (maximum of $25k), placement in the final Top 25 rankings from either the AP, Coaches or CFP poll (maximum of $25k) and a National Coach of the Year award ($75k, separate prizes if from AP or conference OR by a nationally recognized poll or association).

Additionally, there's performance incentives. For all of these record or postseason incentives, only one option can be added to the contract each season.

10 wins in a season would yield $50k, 11 wins would be $100k and 12 wins would be $150k.

There's also incentives for the SEC title game. An appearance would equal $150k, while a win would yield $400k.

Finally, there's incentives based on possible postseason accomplishments for Missouri. Those are as follows.

Birmingham or Gasparilla or Non-Affiliated SEC Bowl Game Participant; or $100,000
Citrus Bowl or SEC Group of Six Bowl Game Participant; or $150,000
CFP First Round Appearance; or $400,000
CFP Quarterfinals Appearance; or $500,000
CFP Seminal Game Appearance; or $600,000
CFP National Championship Game Appearance; or $1,000,000
CFP National Championship Game Win $1,250,000
Maximum Value (non-cumulative - only highest level earned) $1,250,000

The contract also includes another raise for Drinkwitz's assistant coaching staff, which also saw a raise when Drinkwitz signed an extension in July of 2025. The increase has the salary pool for assistants go from $12 million to $16 million.