One of the more exciting hires in College Football would have to be Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss. Kiffin has become something of a journeyman over these last two decades, making head coaching stops at USC, Tennessee, Florida Atlantic, and the NFL with the Raiders. He even was Alabama’s offensive coordinator for a while (winning a National Championship in the process). But outside his success at Alabama, each of these opportunities was hit and miss up until Florida Atlantic. He took an unheralded, dormant program and made them respectful on a national level.
As you might expect, this success made Kiffin a hot commodity on the head coaching market. Ole Miss decided to make him an offer Kiffin couldn’t refuse. They were rather desperate to inject some new optimism into their program after the large unsuccessful Matt Luke era. The team had only managed to win 15 games over these last three years. Kiffin’s Florida Atlantic teams went 26–13 in the same amount of time. Of course, the competition was a lot less fierce, but his hiring still received much fanfare around the country.
But it required shelling out a lot of money to obtain Kiffin’s services; Ole Miss wasn’t the only one looking to hire the so-called offensive-minded genius. Let’s take a look at what Kiffin’s guaranteed to and can earn in the upcoming season. It’ll give you an idea about how much promising head coaching talent costs these days.
Lane Kiffin’s 2020-2021 Contract
Total Guaranteed Compensation
Every College Football head coaching contract has a guaranteed base compensation. This amount of money is what Kiffin will make regardless of the success on the field. In his case, the contract terms are laid out like this over the next few years:
- 2020-2021: $3,900,000
- 2021-2022: $4.000.000
- 2022-2023: $4,100,000
- 2023-2024: $4,200,000
As you can see, Kiffin gets a $100,000 increase in guaranteed compensation each year he remains Ole Miss’s head coach. If the team is successful, you can expect this number to get restructured to match other top-tier coaches. This level of pay lines him up with what mid-tier Power 5 schools pay, such as Wisconsin (Paul Chryst) and Stanford (David Shaw). It’s an excellent starting salary, but something Kiffin will likely want to increase in a few years.
But he does have an opportunity to make more money than his guaranteed compensation. His contract includes several performance incentives, which could offer additional income to make up the difference.
Additional Income
Ole Miss’s performance incentives aren’t too different from what has become standard in most head coaching contracts. Kiffin stands to make quite a bit of money, depending on how many of these bonuses are obtained.
He has incentives based on regular-season success, postseason success, academics, and even coaching recognition awards. It’s a nice chunk of change that Ole Miss is willing to spend on making sure their football team regains respect nationally.
Regular-season Incentives
- Wins 5 SEC games: $150,000 (an extra $150,000 for each additional win)
- Regular Season Victory Against a Non-conference Power 5 Opponent: $100,000 per win
This season won’t allow a non-conference Power 5 victory to happen because of COVID-19. But his Ole Miss team is more than capable of winning 5 SEC games even with their tough SEC-only schedule. Kiffin’s team plays in the significantly weaker east division rather than the absolute horror show that’s the west division.
Postseason Incentives
- Participates in SEC Championship Game: $150,000
- Or wins SEC Championship Game: $400,000
- Participates in the Birmingham or Independence Bowl: $50,000
- Participates in the Group of Six SEC Bowl Games (Taxslayer, Outback, Belk, Music City, Texas, and Liberty): $100,000
- Participates in the Citrus Bowl: $125,000
- Participates in any College Football Playoff Access Game (Sugar, Rose, Cotton, Peach, Orange, and Fiesta): $250,000
- Advances to College Football Semi-final: $500,000
- Or Advances to National Championship: $750,000
- Or Wins National Championship: $1,000,000
If Kiffin pulls off a perfect season, he stands to make an extra $1,400,000 in postseason incentives. It would include obtaining the bonuses for winning both an SEC Championship and National Championship. He would set the SEC world on fire with getting either of these achievements, but getting both is an entirely different thing. Honestly, it’d be a lot like what LSU experienced last year with their miraculous season.
Coaching Recognition Incentives
- Wins SEC Coach of the Year: $50,000
- Wins National Coach of the Year: $100,000
An Ole Miss perfect season would earn Kiffin both these awards without a single doubt. After all, nobody is expecting much from the team in this COVID-19 impacted campaign. Most experts expect 2020-2021 to be Kiffin’s rebuilding year. If Ole Miss manages to defy all expectations and win the National Championship or even the SEC, he’d easily sweep these coaching awards and earn another $150,000.
Academic Incentives
Single Year of Team’s APR of 950 or above: $100,000
Single Year of Team’s APR of 975 or above: $150,000
This last set of incentives concerns his team’s work inside the classroom. He can earn a maximum of $150,000 for something which has little to do with his coaching talent. It sounds like an excellent contract perk to have as a head football coach.
Maximum Earnings for 2020-2021
Let’s say Kiffin’s team earns a perfect 13-0 record (10 regular season SEC wins, an SEC Championship win, CFP Semi-final win, and National Championship win). In that case, he’d stand to earn an additional $2,300,000 based on-field success. You then couple this figure with obtaining both coaching awards and the team having stellar academic standing, it jumps to a whopping $2,600,000:
- Ten Regular-season SEC wins: $900,000
- SEC Championship win: $400,000
- National Championship win: $1,000,0000
- SEC Coach of the Year: $50,000
- National Coach of the Year: $100,000
- Single Year of Team’s APR of 975 or above: $150,000
This additional income would make Kiffin’s earnings reach $6,500,000 during 2020-2021. It represents a sizable jump from the $3,900,000 that he’s guaranteed to earn. Overall, it makes Kiffen quite incentivize to make his team the best it could be, no matter how long this unpredictable COVID-19 season lasts.