Oklahoma Regents Approve Brent Venables' Raise, Extension to $8.6 Million Annually

The Sooners have their head coach locked up through the 2029 season as the program transitions into the SEC.

CHRIS LANDSBERGER/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA

ARDMORE — Oklahoma Director of Athletics Joe Castiglione discussed Brent Venables’ contract extension at length after Friday’s Board of Regents meeting.

The board unanimously passed Agenda Item 46, securing a pay raise and extension for Venables and several other university coaches at the Noble Research Institute in Ardmore. There was a sense of urgency from Castiglione and OU president Joe Harroz Jr.

“The countdown has officially begun,” said Harroz, to Oklahoma athletics’ exodus from the Big 12 and July 1st marriage with the SEC.

“We’ve been working on strategies around the transition,” Castiglione said. “You’ve heard the term, ‘SEC ready.’ I know there are things we’re going to continue to work on as we move through the membership of the SEC, but setting certain things in place and creating stability going forward was very important. And talking about the fact that it’s roughly nine days away, we’re going to start counting it in hours here pretty soon.”

Venables’ new contract extension is a six-year deal for a total of $51.6 million, or an average of $8.6 million a year.

His new arrangement paces him at a total compensation of $7,225,000 for the 2024 season, with annual increases through the end of the 2030 extension term. Effective Feb. 1, 2025, Venables’ compensation will increase to $7,625,000. One year later, it will jump to $7,725,000 and hold steady for two years. Effective Feb. 1, 2028, that amount will increase to $7,825,000 and $7,925,000 in 2029.

Venables’s extension includes a $250,000 incentive for winning a conference championship and a $1,000,000 for winning the College Football Playoff National Championship.

“We were proactive about contracts as best as we can,” Castiglione said. “We were watching [the] market. We’re certainly recognizing the performance of our coaches, you know, the role that they play in leadership, the importance of not just talking about stability and the forward-thinking and what our program wants to do in tracking toward future success, but demonstrating it.

"I think our move in the contract for coach Venables is a perfect example of that. What he’s been doing since he’s been on campus for two years, and then as we’re moving into a new league, setting the foundation in the right place for us to be successful moving forward and pursue championships, just like all the best teams are trying to do and the ones that we’re competing against.”

Extensions for assistant coaches Miguel Chavis and DeMarco Murray were approved under the same agenda item. 

Chavis’s base salary will hold steady at $285,000 through January 31, 2027, but additional unrestricted outside funds will bring him to a total of $405,000, which will increase to $455,000 on Feb. 1, 2025.