Indiana University and Football Coach Curt Cignetti Agree to New Eight-Year Contract Through 2033

[IUFootballHappyHappyJoyJoy 851]

And that's how you establish yourself as a football school right then and there.

[cthomas 6,906]

10 hours ago, Lebowski said:

Yeah man, I've been taking it easy for all you sinners out there. Cloud freaking nine!

The Dude always abides!!

[cthomas 6,906]

10 hours ago, Hovadipo said:

The hiring school pretty much always pays the buyout, even though it's tied to the coach. We paid 1.2 for Cig and I'm willing to bet a $5million buyout, for example, won't stop a P4 school from trying to re-create that magic. Not to mention the windfall it'd be for the G6 school that's happy to get paid 20% of that or less to play a P4.

Coaching contracts have completely jumped the shark in all ways, but this is just another example of "it's that way because that's the way it is" imo.

Cignetti is a unicorn. Right coach at the right time at the right school. The odds of someone replicating this is really small.  He came to Indiana right when we were tired of being the losingest team in football. He came to Indiana when we finally had an Athletic Director AND a President who were aligned in purpose. Without that, this doesn't happen. As unbelievable as it sounds, IU football is about to be the number two football team in the country.

 

[iubb 4,974]

  

Quote

Indiana University released the signed memorandum of understanding for Curt Cignetti’s new eight-year contract that runs through November of 2033.

Cignetti signed the deal on October 16, 2025.

Here are the details of the deal:

• The eight-year term begins December 1, 2025, and concludes on November 2033.

• The annual base salary for Cignetti is $500,00 with annual outside, marketing and promotional income each year as follows:



 

– Year 1: $9,650,000
– Year 2: $9,750,000
– Year 3: $9,850,000
– Year 4: $9,950,000
– Year 5: $10,050,000
– Year 6: $10,150,000
– Year 7: $10,250,000
– Year 8: $10,350,000

• Cignetti will receive an annual retention bonus of $1,000,000 paid out yearly on November 30 through 2029. The first payment will be paid on November 30, 2025.

After 2029, Cignetti’s annual retention bonus will increase to $1,250,000, payable on November 30 each year through the end of the deal.

• Cignetti will receive a $250,000 signing bonus, which will be paid within 30 days of executing the offer letter.

• Cignetti has the opportunity for two Big Ten-related bonuses, which are not cumulative:

Conference wins: 5th Big Ten win ($100,000) or 6th Big Ten win ($150,000)
Conference finish: Top six finish ($250,000); second-place finish, including ties ($500,000); Big Ten championship game win ($1,000,000).

• $200,000 bonus for making a bowl game that isn’t a part of the CFP and a $50,000 bonus if IU wins the bowl game.

• Cignetti can earn a CFP bonus (not cumulative): CFP first round appearance ($500,000); CFP quarterfinal appearance ($600,000); CFP semifinal appearance ($700,000); CFP national runner-up ($1,000,000); CFP national championship ($2,000,000).

• Cignetti can earn $50,000 for winning Big Ten coach of the year and $100,000 for national coach of the year.

• Cignetti will receive $10,000 in allowance for personal adidas product orders and $25,000 for a courtesy car allowance.

– Between December 1, 2025 and November 30, 2033, here are the updated buyout amounts if Cignetti leaves IU for another job:

– Between December 1, 2025 and November 30, 2026: $15,000,000
– Between December 1, 2026 and November 30, 2027: $12,000,000
– Between December 1, 2027 and November 30, 2028: $9,000,000
– Between December 1, 2028 and November 30, 2029: $6,000,000
– Between December 1, 2029 and November 30, 2030: $4,000,000
– Between December 1, 2030 and November 30, 2031: $2,000,000
– Between December 1, 2031 and November 30, 2032: $1,000,000
– Between December 1, 2032 and November 30, 2033: $0

The buyout is reduced by 50 percent if either Pamela Whitten or Scott Dolson is no longer serving in their current position at the time of resignation.







 

 

ALSO:
 

• Cignetti is also entitled to a good-faith market review for his deal, as follows:

 

[Stuhoo 93,683]

17 minutes ago, iubb said:

  

The buyout is reduced by 50 percent if either Pamela Whitten or Scott Dolson is no longer serving in their current position at the time of resignation.

 

^^This is further proof of the mindset of an extraordinary winner.^^

Sure, Cig wants a fat paycheck and sure he wants his life and his family situation to be good where he is. But he could get those things in lots of places.

"But Bloomington is special!" Yes, Bloomington is a really good place, and to IU students, alumni, and fans Bloomington and IU are special. Guess what? Places like Gainesville and State College are similarly special and good places. 

To Cig Bloomington and IU are simply really good. So what is "special" to Cig? That the leadership that he works alongside be worthy of his trust and respect. And if those highly appreciated leaders in his life aren't there? He is sending an open signal that he will look somewhere that has leadership that he respects.

What an incredible endorsement of the University President and AD!

[Lebowski 4,370]

23 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

^^This is further proof of the mindset of an extraordinary winner.^^

Sure, Cig wants a fat paycheck and sure he wants his life and his family situation to be good where he is. But he could get those things in lots of places.

"But Bloomington is special!" Yes, Bloomington is a really good place, and to IU students, alumni, and fans Bloomington and IU are special. Guess what? Places like Gainesville and State College are similarly special and good places. 

To Cig Bloomington and IU are simply really good. So what is "special" to Cig? That the leadership that he works alongside be worthy of his trust and respect. And if those highly appreciated leaders in his life aren't there? He is sending an open signal that he will look somewhere that has leadership that he respects.

What an incredible endorsement of the University President and AD!

A commitment to IUFB is a top to bottom approach. And so far we have a CFP appearance and currently ranked #2 in the country. Makes you wonder what took so dang long to this kind of commitment. Most of us FB first faithful knew this was possible, for decades. 

[Brass Cannon 26,878]

1 minute ago, Lebowski said:

A commitment to IUFB is a top to bottom approach. And so far we have a CFP appearance and currently ranked #2 in the country. Makes you wonder what took so dang long to this kind of commitment. Most of us FB first faithful knew this was possible, for decades. 

I actually think it makes a lot of sense. The wrong coach with more resources is still the wrong coach. 
 

We had to hit a home run before just spending money.  Nobody knew we would essentially hit two grand slams in one inning with Cig though. 

[Stuhoo 93,683]

1 minute ago, Lebowski said:

A commitment to IUFB is a top to bottom approach. And so far we have a CFP appearance and currently ranked #2 in the country. Makes you wonder what took so dang long to this kind of commitment. Most of us FB first faithful knew this was possible, for decades. 

Great leadership is what took so long.

• Whitten + Dolson = Cignetti
• Dolson + Cignetti = Haines, Shanahan, Bostad, Owens, etc.
• Cignetti + Haines, Shanahan, etc = winningwinningwinning.

 

[go iu bb 10,308]

46 minutes ago, iubb said:

  

 

ALSO:
 

• Cignetti is also entitled to a good-faith market review for his deal, as follows:

 

It looks like IU is also committed to keeping him well compensated as long as he does well. If he makes the CFP Semi-finals, they'll make sure he's the 3rd (or better) highest paid coach. They've also committed to the coaching staff, keeping it top 5 in the B1G and top 10 nationally.

Firing him would be very expensive, since it's not only 100% of his remaining contract but also all of the remaining retention bonuses.

[AZ Hoosier 11,655]

One curious clause IMO:

The buyout is reduced by 50 percent if either Pamela Whitten or Scott Dolson is no longer serving in their current position at the time of resignation.

[str8baller 8,415]

14 minutes ago, AZ Hoosier said:

One curious clause IMO:

The buyout is reduced by 50 percent if either Pamela Whitten or Scott Dolson is no longer serving in their current position at the time of resignation.

I assume the BoT has to sign off on this so not that big of a deal. But that’s a nice little piece of self-dealing if you are Whitten/Dolson…lol

[Brass Cannon 26,878]

54 minutes ago, go iu bb said:

It looks like IU is also committed to keeping him well compensated as long as he does well. If he makes the CFP Semi-finals, they'll make sure he's the 3rd (or better) highest paid coach. They've also committed to the coaching staff, keeping it top 5 in the B1G and top 10 nationally.

Firing him would be very expensive, since it's not only 100% of his remaining contract but also all of the remaining retention bonuses.

Even if he has a huge drop off and starts to only win 6-7 games a year he will be our all time winningest coach most likely 

[Lebowski 4,370]

2 hours ago, Brass Cannon said:

I actually think it makes a lot of sense. The wrong coach with more resources is still the wrong coach. 
 

We had to hit a home run before just spending money.  Nobody knew we would essentially hit two grand slams in one inning with Cig though. 

You're not wrong. Coaching matters!!!

I will say this though, before Coach Cig took the job he was promised a budget and resources the administration had never done, ever. So while the type of success we are seeing currently might not have happened we would most likely be looking at a much improved IUFB program from top to bottom. A school like Kansas or UK more than likely. Dolson had a proper checklist for his coaching search. That type of checklist was the first time in the history of the program. You can find me talking about it ad nauseum in this thread.

This is why I say, the IUFB program essentially started during the November 2023 coaching search. 

[DChoosier 10,657]

2 hours ago, Brass Cannon said:

Even if he has a huge drop off and starts to only win 6-7 games a year he will be our all time winningest coach most likely 

Check this out.

Below are our 5 previous coaches, tenure and TOTAL BIg Ten wins:

Dinardo 3 years, 3 (THREE) Big Ten wins

Hep 2 years, 4 Big Ten wins

Lynch 4 years, 6 BT wins

Wilson 6 years, 12 BT wins

Allen 7 years, 18 BT wins

CIG 1.5 years, 12 BT wins!!!!!!

The previous 5 coaches averaged 1.95 BT wins a year over the last 22 friggin years! 
Id start building the Cig statue TODAY!

[Brass Cannon 26,878]

7 minutes ago, DChoosier said:

Check this out.

Below are our 5 previous coaches, tenure and TOTAL BIg Ten wins:

Dinardo 3 years, 3 (THREE) Big Ten wins

Hep 2 years, 4 Big Ten wins

Lynch 4 years, 6 BT wins

Wilson 6 years, 12 BT wins

Allen 7 years, 18 BT wins

CIG 1.5 years, 12 BT wins!!!!!!

The previous 5 coaches averaged 1.95 BT wins a year over the last 22 friggin years! 
Id start building the Cig statue TODAY!

Hold your horses.  We gotta let this play out so that we can see how big it needs to be. 

[DChoosier 10,657]

15 hours ago, Brass Cannon said:

Hold your horses.  We gotta let this play out so that we can see how big it needs to be. 

That’s a good point.

It’s crazy that in 1.5 seasons Cignetti has already won as many Big Ten games as Wilson did in 6 seasons.