Bonus, baby: Arizona State football coach Kenny Dillingham could make another million-plus
Saturday could be a big day for the Arizona State football program.
It could also be a very profitable one for head coach Kenny Dillingham, whose Sun Devils (10-2, 7-2) meet Iowa State (10-2, 7-2) in the Big 12 championship game Saturday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Dillingham has a base salary of $3.95 million, 13th of the 16 coaches in the conference in terms of pay — not surprising since Dillingham is one of the newer coaches and is in his first stint as a head coach.
Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy, rounding out his 20th year, is at the top of the heap, raking in $7.75 million, followed closely by Lance Leipold of Kansas and Kyle Whittingham of Utah.
But Dillingham is doing well for a relative newcomer.
He already collected an extra $200,000 when his team defeated BYU two weeks ago for its ninth win of the season. He chose to divide that among 20 off-the-field staffers.
Dillingham, 34, would make another bonus of $395,000 if ASU wins the Big 12 title game. A victory would probably get the Sun Devils into the first-ever 12-team CFP playoff, which would result in another 30% of his yearly salary, about $1.185 million.
By reaching the playoff, Dillingham would be due to receive $1.580 million on top of the bonuses already achieved. He would earn an additional 5 percent of his salary with a CFP quarterfinals win and another 5 percent with a CFP semifinals win.
If the Sun Devils then won the national championship, Dillingham would be paid another 10 percent of his salary, per the terms of his contract.
Such contracts are not unusual in college football. ASU tends to pay its coaches, no matter the sport, toward the middle of the pack when it comes to conference peers but lays out a lot in terms of incentives.
It's not like there was reason for the administration to worry about having to dole out such a significant amount of money in bonuses with ASU coming off a 3-9 showing in 2023, Dillingham's first season, on the heels of finishing with the same mark in 2022 before Dillingham arrived.
The seven-game improvement is the biggest year-to-year turnaround in school history, and the season isn't even done yet. Even if they don't win the conference championship game, ASU would go to a bowl game, most likely the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio or the Holiday Bowl in San Diego.