How does Kyle Whittingham’s contract stack up in the Big 12?

Over 20 seasons, Utah coach Kyle Whittingham has built his football program into a consistent force in the West, and he’s being rewarded handsomely for it.

Per his last available contract amendment, signed in 2022, the longtime Ute coach is set to make $6,525,000 this year, making him the highest-paid state employee in Utah — $5,025,000 will be paid from the university, $1 million will be paid from the school’s multimedia rights holder, JMI Sports, and $500,000 will be paid from apparel sponsor Under Armour.

Led by Whittingham, Utah’s football program brought in $92,544,582 of revenue for the athletic department in fiscal year 2023, per university financial filings , and had $51,843,385 of expenses — a net profit of $40,701,197 that helped fund the rest of the university’s athletic budget.

In 2024, Whittingham will earn a base salary of $5 million, a $300,000 increase from 2023.

Whittingham earned a $25,000 retention bonus for remaining employed by the university on Jan. 15, and will receive $1 million from JMI Sports “for the use of his name, image and likeness.” He will also get $500,000 from Under Armour for “the use of his name, image and likeness in the promotion of the Outfitter and its products.”

Those guaranteed payments, including the retention bonus, add up to $6,525,000, but there is the opportunity for Whittingham to earn even more based on his team’s performance in 2024.

He’ll receive a bonus of $400,000 if Utah makes it to a New Year’s Six or College Football Playoff game, plus an additional bonus of $100,000 if the Utes win a New Year’s Six bowl game. If the Utes participate in any other bowl game, Whittingham will receive a bonus of $275,000.

If Utah advances to the Big 12 championship game, Whittingham is scheduled to receive a $100,000 bonus.

(Note: The 2022 contract refers to the Pac-12; the Deseret News requested the latest version of Whittingham’s contract via a GRAMA request and the university provided the 2022 contract extension as the most recent.)

Academic bonuses include $75,000 for an academic progress rate of 980 or above — Utah’s football program has achieved that in each academic year since 2014-15 — and another $75,000 for a graduation success rate of over 80% — Utah has achieved over 90% in each of the last six years.

If Utah is ranked in the final, year-end Associated Press Top 25 or College Football Playoff rankings, Whittingham receives a $150,000 bonus. There’s also a once-per-year $25,000 bonus if the Utes appear in the the College Football Playoff Rankings at any time, or a once-per-year bonus of $15,000 if Utah is in the Associated Press Top 25 or Coaches Poll (in years Whittingham does not vote) at any time.

Other bonuses include compensation if Whittingham is named national or Big 12 Coach of the Year, and rewards for staying within the football program’s budget each year.

Benefits, aside from standards like health care and retirement plans that are provided to all university employees, include free tuition at Utah for his kids and grandkids, two automobiles provided by the university, including insurance and gasoline covered for the primary automobile, a membership to the Salt Lake Country Club and a private stadium box for his family for all home football games.

One of the most interesting parts of the contract is a five-year agreement for Whittingham to serve as a special assistant to the athletics director upon retirement, with a salary of $995,000 per year.

Whittingham will also receive a lump sum payment upon retirement, which will be his base salary, plus the amounts from JMI and Under Armour, minus $4,975,000. If Whittingham were to retire after the 2025 season, for example, he’d get a payment of $1,925,000.

There’s no doubt that Whittingham is compensated well, but how does he stack up across the Big 12? We looked at the salaries for each coach in the conference, aside from BYU, TCU and Baylor — which are private institutions that do not have to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests, though USA Today published the 2023 salary of Baylor coach Dave Aranda and ProPublica published the fiscal year 2023 salary of TCU coach Sonny Dykes.

The salary data is based on guaranteed payments for 2024 — base salary, multimedia and apparel company payments, and guaranteed bonuses like signing or retention payments — and does not include incentive-based bonuses.

2024 Big 12 coaches salaries

• Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State: $7,750,000 (source)
• Lance Leipold, Kansas: $7,011,547 (source) *
• Kyle Whittingham, Utah: $6,525,000 (source)
• Deion Sanders, Colorado: $5,700,000 (source)
• Chris Klieman, Kansas State: $5,250,000 (source)
• Sonny Dykes, TCU: $4,931,043 (source, fiscal year ending in May 2023) **
• Willie Fritz, Houston: $4,500,000 (source)
• Joey McGuire, Texas Tech: $4,200,000 (source)
• Matt Campbell, Iowa State: $4,000,000 (source)
• Neal Brown, West Virginia: $4,000,000 (source)
• Gus Malzahn, UCF: $4,000,000 (source)
• Kenny Dillingham, Arizona State: $3,950,000 (source)
• Scott Satterfield, Cincinnati: $3,500,000 (source)
• Brent Brennan, Arizona: $3,100,000 (source)
• Dave Aranda, Baylor: $3,021,003 (source, 2023 data)
• Kalani Sitake, BYU: Not available

* Lance Leipold inked an amended contract earlier this year, which pays him a $500,000 base salary, a $1 million signing bonus in 2024 and $7,791,667 from Dec. 1, 2023-April 30, 2025. We divided $7,791,667 by 516 days, then multiplied that number by 365 to get an idea of how much Leipold will earn in 2024.

** It’s unclear if Sonny Dykes’ compensation includes performance bonuses.