Here's how much football coaches at Arizona State and University of Arizona will be paid

Arizona college football coaches are winning big — at least when it comes to pay.

Arizona State University’s new football head coach Kenny Dillingham is slated to become the highest paid public employee in the state, with a base salary of $3.85 million.

The Arizona Board of Regents on Tuesday unanimously approved a contract for Dillingham to lead the Sun Devils through 2027. The ASU graduate was named head coach in late November.

The board also approved raises and an extension for University of Arizona football head coach Jedd Fisch, who was hired in December 2020.

There was not much public discussion of the two contracts during Tuesday's meeting, although the board discussed the items in a brief closed-door session prior to the votes.

Dillingham’s five-year contract with ASU includes annual raises, perks and potential hefty bonuses if the football team does well athletically and academically. With guaranteed raises of $100,000 each year, his base pay will hit $4.25 million by the end of his current contract.

“The energy and the enthusiasm around this particular hire has been exceptional, and it is very apparent that he is very excited to be, as he says, ‘home,’” Board of Regents Chair Lyndel Manson said prior to the vote. “He brings a tremendous opportunity for increasing Arizona engagement with ASU football and with ASU in general, so I’m enthusiastic about that.”

The new coach’s starting pay is about the same as the $3.9 million his predecessor, Herm Edwards, would have made in base salary this year before he and ASU parted ways in September.

As a result, ASU must pay both head football coaches for two years. Edwards and the university agreed he would take a 50% buyout of his remaining salary, meaning about $4.4 million paid through 2024, per a university spokesperson.

A Scottsdale native, Dillingham graduated from ASU in 2013 and started his coaching career there the next year as an offensive assistant. He most recently was offensive coordinator at the University of Oregon.

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The 32-year-old is the youngest head football coach at a Power 5 school. He also is the first ASU graduate to lead the team and is the school’s 26th head football coach.

For Fisch at UA, the Board of Regents unanimously approved a large pay raise and contract extension for two years, to run through 2027.

UA cited “significant improvements both on and off the field” as the reason for boosting Fisch’s compensation.

UA President Robert Robbins told the Regents that he hopes to present “many additional amendments” to Fisch’s contract in the future.

“I think we all know the excitement and accomplishment that Jedd has brought to our program — completely changed the culture in the classroom, outside the classroom, and on the field for our players and our fans and students,” Robbins said.

The pair of coaches are expected to top the list of Arizona’s highest paid state employees. Edwards and Kevin Sumlin, a former UA football coach, led the fiscal year 2021 rankings with salaries of $3.7 million and $2.6 million, respectively, according to an Arizona Republic database.

Both Dillingham and Fisch will earn more. UA men’s basketball head coach Tommy Lloyd ranks between the two, as after getting a $1 million raise in June, Lloyd’s annual salary rose to $3.6 million.

Details of Kenny Dillingham’s ASU contract

Dillingham’s initial $3.85 million salary will increase by $100,000 at the end of each November, starting in 2023.

His salary will come from “public university funds, specifically from revenue generated by Sun Devil Athletics,” according to ASU.

“The base salary will be in the middle of the conference, with the bonus based on performance academically and athletically,” Christine Wilkinson, ASU’s secretary of the university, told the board. She called Dillingham a “home-grown product” and said he’s bringing a lot of energy.

Dillingham can get much more each year from those bonuses based on his team’s athletic and academic performance. That includes:

• If the team wins 12 regular season games, he’ll get an additional $1.4 million, with lesser amounts for winning nine, 10 or 11 games.

• If the team plays in the Pac-12 championship, he’ll get an additional 10% of his annual salary, and 20% if they win.

• If the team plays in or wins a bowl game, he’ll get between $50,000 or up to half his annual salary, depending on the type of bowl game.

• If Dillingham is named national coach of the year, he’ll get $100,000. If he’s named any other coach of the year, he’ll get $50,000.

• On the academic side, he can get a maximum of $300,000 if the team GPA hits 3.0 and graduation success rate is 91%, with lower cash rewards for lower ratings starting at 2.7 for GPA and 76% for graduation. In 2020-21, the team GPA was 2.56 and graduation success rate was 86%.

• If new scholarship players are enrolled in Barrett, the Honors College at ASU, he can get between $50,000 and $250,000, depending on the number of students.

And there’s more: Dillingham’s contract provides for typical employee benefits plus relocation expenses, tickets to ASU sporting events, use of two cars or a vehicle stipend, golf at the ASU course and reimbursement of dues at a country or social club. He also gets the use of a suite at all home football games and travel for his immediate family to all away and postseason football games.

If the NCAA penalizes ASU with a scholarship reduction or post-season bowl game ban due to events from before Dillingham’s employment, ASU plans to ask the Board of Regents for contract extensions for each year sanctions are in place. The football program remains under investigation by the NCAA for possible recruiting violations during the pandemic.

If ASU ends the contract without cause, the university will have to pay out Dillingham’s salary for the rest of the contract term. If Dillingham ends the contract early and takes another job, he’ll have to pay ASU between $1 million and $4 million, depending on when he leaves.

Jedd Fisch extended as UA football coach

UA leaders said they wanted to improve Fisch’s contract given the “remarkable progress and improvement of the football program” during his first two years as coach in everything from records and recruiting to fan engagement and academics.

UA football was 0-5 in the shortened pandemic season prior to Fisch’s hire, then 1-11 and 5-7 in his first two seasons, among other improvements in rankings. UA beat ASU in the Territorial Cup this year for the first time since 2016.

Fisch’s initial contract gave him an annual base salary of $1.8 million with yearly increases through November 2025. His contract now goes through November 2027 and includes higher pay.

Here’s what UA will now pay him each year:

• December 2022-December 2023: $2.85 million ($2.35 million in base + $500,000 additional duties)

• December 2023-December 2024: $3 million ($2.5 million in base + $500,000 additional duties)

• December 2024-December 2025: $3.2 million ($2.7 million in base + $500,000 additional duties)

• December 2025-December 2026: $3.25 million ($2.75 million in base + $500,000 additional duties)

• December 2026-December 2027: $3.6 million ($3.1 million in base + $500,000 additional duties)

Additional duties involve his public facing responsibilities including interviews, advertising and promoting the program.

Fisch also is expected to get money from arrangements with Nike and Learfield, a sports marketing company.

And like Dillingham, he’s eligible for various bonuses based on the football team’s academic and athletic performance.

If UA ends the contract without cause, the university will pay Fisch 70% of his remaining pay through the agreement, offset by what he makes at a new coaching or media job. Fisch can end the contract without cause as well, but would have to pay UA between $1.5 million and $6.5 million, depending on how soon he were to leave.

Republic reporter Michelle Gardner contributed to this article.

Have a story about higher education? Reach the reporter at Alison.Steinbach@arizonarepublic.com or at 602-444-4282. Follow her on Twitter @alisteinbach.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How much will ASU's Kenny Dillingham, UA's Jedd Fisch make?