Curt Cignetti earned a major payday on Thursday, signing an eight-year contract extension with Indiana worth $92 million. Cignetti will make approximately $11.6 million per year for a contract that will keep him in Bloomington through the 2033 season.
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Cignetti is in his second season with the Hoosiers, leading the program to a College Football Playoff appearance in December. IU is ranked No. 3 in Week 8 after scoring a 63-10 win over a then-No. 9 Illinois team on Sept. 20 and beating then-No. 3 Oregon 30-20 in Eugene on Saturday.
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The move by Indiana to secure Cignetti’s extension this week was timely, as he was linked to the Penn State opening following head coach James Franklin’s dismissal on Sunday. However, ESPN’s Paul Finebaum took issue with the terms of the new deal, arguing that Cignetti hasn’t proven worthy of being paid like a top coach in the country.
“This is a terrible move by Indiana,” Finebaum said on his show Thursday. “I know that the college football cognoscenti will disagree with me, but there is no way in the world that Curt Cignetti should be the third-highest-paid coach in the country. He is not in Kirby Smart’s league. He is not in Ryan Day’s League. He has a big win on the road against Oregon…
“Listen, I realize he may end up winning the national championship, and those who cover college football are very high on him, but this is not how you make sound decisions. This is how you take your university to the ledge and at some point end up paying for it.”
Finebaum bashed the remainder of Indiana’s schedule in the Big Ten, claiming the Hoosiers have “literally nobody” left to play. As of Week 8, none of the remaining teams on IU’s schedule are ranked.
Finebaum sent a warning to IU vice president and director of intercollegiate athletics Scott Dolson, suggesting he could be run out of the school in five or so years.
“But you just mortgaged your university to an astronomical contract based on what? He didn’t beat anybody last year… I’ll make a prediction that the athletic director probably gets run out of there about five years,” Finebaum said.
Finebaum compared Cignetti’s new deal to what other programs have done with coaches in recent history.
“I’m just being realistic,” Finebaum said. “It’s too bad somebody didn’t say the same thing I’m saying about Jimbo Fisher (at Texas A&M) or Mel Tucker (at Michigan State), or any of these other coaches that ended up with these ridiculous (contracts).”
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