Let's Look Closer at Lincoln Riley's New Contract

Riley's new annual average ranks No. 3 in the nation; he's nearly doubled his 2017 starting salary

Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley received a big raise and contract extension on Tuesday when the OU Board of Regents approved the terms of his new contract.

He’ll make $6.15 million in 2020, officially a $150,000 increase. And the six-year, $45.21 million deal gives him an annual salary of $7.535 million through 2025.

Lincoln Riley’s annual salary

• 2017: $3.1 million
• 2018: $4.8 million
• 2019: $6 million

• 2020: $6.15 million
• 2021: $8.05 million*
• 2022: 7.565 million
• 2023: $8.275 million*
• 2024: $7.585 million
• 2025: $7.585 million

• CURRENT DEAL: Six years, $45.21 million

* includes respective stay bonuses of $500,000 and $750,000

+ does not include performance bonuses

Lincoln Riley / Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

Here are a few more details on Riley’s new contract:

• Riley made $6 million last year in just his third season, surpassing the $5.5 million Bob Stoops made in his 18th and final year.
• Riley had a $150,000 annual raise written into his 2019 amended contract. The new contract was agreed to in February, athletic director Joe Castiglione said, so the amount that last month's 10 percent pay cut was reduced from was actually the pro-rated amount (less a $1 million retirement contribution) still applicable to the new deal, or $5.15 million. So the 10 percent reduction was $515,000 over the remainder of the fiscal year — meaning Riley will make in 2020 exactly what he was scheduled to make: $6.15 million.
• In his first year, 2017, Riley was paid $3.1 million before performance bonuses and a summer stay bonus of $500,000, meaning he’s nearly doubled his salary in just two years.
• Riley got $4.8 million in 2018.
• Riley’s 2018 contract was amended in June 2019 to a five-year, $32 million deal — an average of $6.4 million a year. His new contract represents an 18 percent total increase from his previous deal, and a 28 percent increase over the 2018 salary.
• Riley’s previous contract had an annual stay bonus of $700,000 written in. This one only includes stay bonuses of $500,000 in 2021 and $750,000 in 2023.
• Riley is, for now, the highest-paid coach in the Big 12 Conference with a contract average of $7.535 million a year, which would rank third nationally behind Clemson’s Dabo Swinney ($9.316 million) and Alabama’s Nick Saban ($8.857 million), and just ahead of Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh ($7.504 million) and Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher ($7.5 million), according to USA Today’s football coaching salary database. Texas’ Tom Herman got $6.75 million last year, but will likely receive another raise after his team posted an 8-5 record in 2020. Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy is third in the Big 12 at $5.125 million but will not get a raise this year.
• The last five years of Riley’s current deal will pay him an average of $7.812 million a year.
• In Riley’s tenure as head coach, Oklahoma has paid its assistant football coaches $5.03 million in 2017, $5.135 million in 2018, $5.675 million in 2019 and now $6.365 million in 2020. That’s a 26.5 percent increase over three seasons.

Assistant salaries

What Oklahoma football assistant coaches will make in 2020:

• Alex Grinch, defensive coordinator/safeties: $1.8 million (up from $1.4 million)
• Bill Bedenbaugh, co-offensive coordinator/offensive line: $810,000 (up from $750,000)
• Cale Gundy, co-offensive coordinator/inside receivers: $580,000 (up from $535,000)
• Shane Beamer, assistant HC for offense/tight ends/H-backs: $540,000 (up from $470,000)
• Dennis Simmons, associate HC/outside receivers: $510,000 (up from $450,000)
• Roy Manning, cornerbacks: $470,000 (up from $425,000)
• Calvin Thibodeaux, defensive line: $435,000 (up from $375,000)
• Brian Odom, inside linebackers: $435,000 (up from $375,000)
• Jamar Cain, defensive ends/outside linebackers: $435,000 (Ruffin McNeill made $570,000 last year)
• DeMarco Murray, running backs: $350,000 (Jay Boulware made $470,000 last year)

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