Brent Venables Misses Top 10 Highest-Paid Coaches List Despite $63 Million Extension

Even a $10.5 million salary was not enough to crack the sport's richest tier this offseason.

Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables earned a new contract extension with the Sooners. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Not only are college football players getting paid these days, but their leaders on the sidelines are seeing bigger checks as well. Brent Venables just got a massive raise. Oklahoma locked up its head coach through the 2031 season, adding two years and millions of dollars to a contract that already looked strong.

On paper, that kind of deal usually puts a coach near the very top of the sport's pay chart. But college football's coaching market has moved so fast this offseason that even a $63 million extension was not enough to get Venables into the top 10.

Here is what the new deal looks like and why the number that once felt untouchable now ranks closer to the middle of the pack.

Brent Venables new contract details, Oklahoma's investment

Venables agreed to a new six-year, $63 million contract, according to ESPN's Pete Thamel, averaging around $10.5 million a year. The new deal, which adds two additional years and is pending approval by the OU Board of Regents, is expected to average more than $10.5 million per season. The old contract ran through 2029 and was worth roughly $46 million. The new one runs through 2031.

Venables is 55 years old and just wrapped up his best season in Norman. Venables led the Sooners to the College Football Playoff in 2025, the school's first appearance since 2019. Oklahoma finished 10-3 and lost to Alabama in the first round of the playoff. That turnaround mattered a lot, since the Sooners went 6-7 in their first season in the SEC back in 2024.

Sources: Oklahoma and coach Brent Venables have agreed to a new 6-year contract that averages $10.5 million per year. It adds two years to the current deal and goes through 2031. Venables led Oklahoma to the College Football Playoff in 2025, OU’s first CFP since 2019. pic.twitter.com/3tDLvVLmTJ

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) August 20, 2026

New athletic director Roger Denny pushed to get the deal finished quickly after taking over. "The work on his extension began shortly after our team's run to the College Football Playoff, and one of my top priorities in my first several months as athletics director was to make sure we saw that process through," Denny said.

Oklahoma also gave general manager Jim Nagy a new four-year, $4.6 million contract back in June, so the school is clearly spending across its whole football operation, not just on the head coach.

Venables climbing college football's highest-paid coaches list

Here is the surprising part. A $10.5 million salary sounds like it should land in the top five nationally. It does not, and it is not particularly close anymore.

The coaching carousel over the past year reshaped the entire pay scale. With LSU, Penn State, Florida, Auburn, Arkansas, Ole Miss, Oklahoma State, Virginia Tech, UCLA and Stanford all hiring new coaches, it was a particularly active hiring cycle that raised the bar for the top 10. Georgia's Kirby Smart still sits at the top of the sport.

Smart earns $13 million annually after signing a 10-year extension in 2024. LSU's Lane Kiffin joined him near the top after leaving Ole Miss. Kiffin's seven-year, $91 million deal at LSU made him the highest-paid coach in the country without a national championship.

Indiana Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti is the No. 1 highest-paid head coach in college football after last season's 16-0 title run. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Indiana's Curt Cignetti also climbed into that tier. Cignetti signed an extension that included an average annual salary of $11.6 million, with a clause to review his pay further if the Hoosiers reached the College Football Playoff semifinals. Ohio State's Ryan Day, Clemson's Dabo Swinney and Texas' Steve Sarkisian round out the group ahead of Venables, all making more than $10.5 million a year.

That leaves Venables just outside the top 10, sitting closer to sixth in the SEC than sixth nationally. It says something about the rising stakes and costs to compete among college football's best programs.

2026 Oklahoma football outlook

For Oklahoma, the deal is really about stability rather than status. With Oklahoma entering the 2026 season ranked No. 10 in the AP preseason poll, expectations are high for Venables and his program. The Sooners face one of the toughest schedules in school history, including four AP top-10 opponents. Denny made clear the priority was keeping continuity in a sport where jobs and money move overnight, not chasing a specific ranking on a salary chart.

Whether Venables can turn last year's playoff berth into a repeat trip will matter far more to Oklahoma fans than where his number falls compared to the rest of the country.