Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian's salary to significantly increase under new contract

This upcoming week, the Texas Board of Regents is set to approve a significant increase to UT football coach Steve Sarkisian's salary.

Last month, Texas announced that Sarkisian had agreed to a four-year extension that will keep him with the Longhorns through the 2030 football season. If approved, Sarkisian will now make $10.3 million during the 2024 season. He was previously slated to have a salary of $5.8 million.

Sarkisian is also scheduled to now receive annual increases of $100,000 through the end of the contract. That would put him at $10.9 million in 2030.

Sarkisian, 49, has compiled a 25-14 record over his three seasons at Texas. This past season, he led the Longhorns to a Big 12 championship and the school's first-ever appearance in the College Football Playoff. Texas is moving to the Southeastern Conference this summer.

"I said it when I came here three years ago, this is a dream job for me. It’s a destination job, and I’m fired up every day to be the head coach at The University of Texas," Sarkisian said in a statement that was released on Jan. 13. "We’re thrilled with what we’ve been able to accomplish and proud of the culture we’ve built and the way our players have grown — on and off the field. But we’re just getting started. I’ve said it all along, we’ve been building this program for long term success. We’re here to chase greatness, win championships, and be one of the best in the nation year in and year out."

Steve Sarkisian contract to include use of private plane, gameday tickets

The Texas Board of Regents will hold its already-scheduled meeting from Feb. 21-22. Some additional perks of the contract extension that the board will be asked to approve include:

• A one-time payment of $300,000 that is to be paid before April 1, 2024.
• Twenty hours of personal use on a private aircraft provided annually by the university.
• Up to 12 tickets and one suite for all home football games, up to eight tickets for all away football games, up to eight tickets and a suite for all postseason games and up to six tickets for all home games for UT's other sports.
• Annual performance incentives that max out at $1.85 million. The highlights of those incentives are the $300,000 that Texas will pay Sarkisian if he leads UT to a conference championship, the $200,000 that he'll earn if he wins one of the major national coach of the year awards and the $1.25 million bonus that he'll receive if UT wins a national championship.

How much did Steve Sarkisian make in 2023?

Sarkisian made $5.6 million in 2023, which was the third year of a six-year contract that he originally signed in 2021. That made him the 30th-highest paid coach in the database of coaching salaries collected by USA Today. If he had been paid $10.3 million in 2023, Sarkisian would have ranked fourth behind the recently-retired Nick Saban ($11,407,000), Clemson's Dabo Swinney ($10,884,775) and Georgia's Kirby Smart ($10,705,600).

This week, the Texas Board of Regents will also be asked to approve contract extensions for UT assistant coaches Kyle Flood, Pete Kwiatkowski and Jeff Banks. These deals will keep UT's offensive, defensive and special teams coordinators with the Longhorns through the 2026 season.