Update on $93 million head coach's college football future emerges amid NFL rumors

The allure of the NFL is always there for even the best college head coaches. Nick Saban had his run with the Miami Dolphins, Jim Harbaugh has bookended his Michigan title with NFL stints, and several other top NFL head coaches have stepped aside from collegiate roots.

Between that natural tendency to move up and the struggles of many current (or recently current) NFL head coaches, rumors are inevitable around the top collegiate coaches. Seven NFL teams are looking for new head coaches, and a coach winning a ton of college games can be an attractive option.

All of this has led NFL whispers to center around Indiana's Curt Cignetti. The coach of the No. 1 Indiana Hoosiers who has led Indiana out of a morbid history to a pair of CFP appearances is college football's flavor of the moment. But would Cignetti, finishing just his second season of coaching a major conference program and fresh off signing a $93 million contract extension, be interested in the NFL?

ESPN's Heather Dinich addressed the topic of ESPN's Get Up and made her take clear. "I'll tell you what he said as an answer to that question," said Dinich, referring to comments from Cignetti in October. "He said he's going to retire as a Hoosier. It's not that he can't do this. He would be a fantastic coach, he's proven that at every level. It's just not necessarily.... something everyone wants to do. I think the reality of his contract is going to keep him at Indiana, plus the fact that he's got something special going there, for sure."

"He said he's going to retire a Hoosier." 👀@CFBHeather on whether Curt Cignetti would leave Indiana for the NFL 🏈 pic.twitter.com/5ZSy4IzMaq
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) January 7, 2026

It is worth noting that Cignetti, at 64 years old, would be the second-oldest head coach in the NFL. As Bill Belichick can attest after his recent career transition to college football, a late-life coaching move isn't always an easy change to make.

Cignetti was something of a late bloomer as a head coach. He didn't compete in his first game as a head coach until age 50, when he took over at Division II Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He then coached at FCS Elon and at James Madison. His first FBS game came when the Dukes moved to FBS for the 2022 season, with Cignetti turning 61 years old before his first FBS head coaching game.

Cignetti came to prominence as an assistant coach under Nick Saban from 2007 to 2011 at Alabama, where he was a wide receiver coach and then a recruiting coordinator. He is now 144-37 as a head coach, including a 25-2 run at Indiana, where the Hoosiers had never won 10 games in a season before Cignetti accomplished the feat in each of the last two seasons.

Between his lucrative compensation, his age, and the unique opportunity Cignetti has at Indiana, it's hard to imagine an NFL team being able to tempt him into a career move. Of course, many coaches have said they wouldn't make a coaching move and then made the move. But Dinich's conclusion feels pretty solid.