Curt Cignetti, Mario Cristobal tied for sixth in College Football Playoff salary rankings

The 2025 college football season culminated on Monday as No. 1 Indiana and No. 10 Miami battled in the twelfth College Football Playoff national championship game.

The matchup featured a pair of programs that had not seen such a level of success in quite some time. Miami's appearance in the national championship was its first in a little over two decades. For Indiana, it was the first time it had ever reached the game.

Another storyline surrounding the 2025 College Football Playoff national championship game was the coaches and their similar ascents through the head coaching ranks.

Curt Cignetti worked for four seasons under Nick Saban at Alabama as the wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator before embarking on his head coaching journey. He made stops at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Elon and James Madison prior to his arrival in Bloomington.

Similar to Cignetti, Cristobal also spent a four-year period on Saban's staff at Alabama as an assistant, working as the associate head coach, recruiting coordinator and offensive line coach for the Crimson Tide.

Cristobal spent five seasons at Oregon between his time in Tuscaloosa and Miami, serving as the co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach in 2017 before his promotion to head coach.

In addition to the backgrounds of their coaching history, Cignetti and Cristobal also earn the same annual salary from their respective institutions. Indiana and Miami pay the two coaches $8.3 million each, which ties them at the sixth-highest-paid among coaches of College Football Playoff teams.

Mario Cristobal ahead of the 2025 College Football Playoff national championship. — Miami Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal at the CFP head coaches press conference | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

While he did not actually coach in the College Football Playoff, Lane Kiffin made $9 million from Ole Miss before he took the head coaching vacancy left by Brian Kelly at LSU. The Rebels made the College Football Playoff semifinals following Kiffin's departure, falling to Cristobal and the Hurricanes in the final minute of the Fiesta Bowl.

Kalen DeBoer is the first coach in the 2025 College Football Playoff ahead of Cignetti and Cristobal to earn more than $10 million annually, sitting at $10.3 million. The Crimson Tide won at Oklahoma to open the 2025 College Football Playoff but fell to Cignetti and the Hoosiers by five touchdowns in the Rose Bowl.

Dan Lanning, Cristobal's successor at Oregon, is No. 3 in annual earnings among College Football Playoff coaches at $10.4 million. The Ducks won both James Madison and Texas Tech comfortably before their collapse against Cignetti and Indiana in the Peach Bowl.

The two highest-paid coaches in the 2025 College Football Playoff are Ryan Day and Kirby Smart, earning $12.6 and $13.3 million, respectively. Ohio State and Georgia both received first-round byes and proceeded to fall in their first College Football Playoff game.