Indiana and Curt Cignetti have agreed on a new 8-year contract with an average salary of $11.6 million per year, IU announced Thursday. The contract expires Nov. 30, 2033. Cignetti's coach-end buyout starts at $15 million, per multiple reports. His school-end buyout is completely guaranteed.
"At Indiana University, we are committed to performing at the highest levels in everything we do, and no one has exemplified that more than Coach Cignetti," said Indiana University President Pamela Whitten. "Put simply, Cig is a winner. From last year's College Football Playoff appearance to this year's top-3 national ranking, the IU Football program's success has been tremendous. Curt and Manette Cignetti are home in Indiana and we are delighted that the Cignetti family will be Hoosiers for many years to come."
"We are committed to investing in IU Football in such a way that we can compete at a championship level, and the No. 1 priority in doing that is ensuring that Coach Cignetti is the leader of our program," said AD Scott Dolson. "His accomplishments during the last season and a half have been nothing short of remarkable. As much as anyone, he believed in what was possible with our program, and he's turned that belief into reality. This is a great day for IU Football and Indiana University. I look forward to working alongside Coach Cignetti for many years to come."
"I couldn't be more proud to be a Hoosier, and I plan on retiring as a Hoosier," Cignetti said.
A Hoosier through & through.
— Indiana Football (@IndianaFootball) October 16, 2025
Our coach, @CCignettiIU. 🎥 pic.twitter.com/DFo7n6Ke1w
While not mentioned by name, the move is an obvious response to Penn State firing James Franklin earlier this week. A Pittsburgh native who took his first head coaching job at IUP, Cignetti is 136-37 as a head coach and 18-2 at Indiana. He's taken the program with the second-lowest all-time winning percentage among Power 4 conferences to the College Football Playoff in his first season on the job, and in Year 2 has the Hoosiers as the No. 3-ranked team in the country after a 30-20 win at Oregon on Saturday.
Last November, Cignetti signed an 8-year contract that averaged $8 million per year with a $1 million retention bonus. Cignetti's original contract was a 6-year deal worth an average of $4.5 million per year.
Of course, the run began long before Indiana. He took a paycut to $125,000 to take the IUP job nearing age 50 in 2011 and has only gone up since then. As recently as 2023, Cignetti was earning less than $700,000 a year.