Arizona State football coach Kenny Dillingham earned record bonus by passing Jim Harbaugh

USA Today

09-06-2025

Arizona State football coach Kenny Dillingham earned record bonus by passing Jim Harbaugh
Show Caption
Hide Caption
ASU football coach Kenny Dillingham discusses significance of Pat's Run
ASU football coach Kenny Dillingham discusses how important Pat's Run is to the ASU community on April 12, 2025.
The bonuses include $2.604 million for on-field performance and at least $502,500 for academic achievements.
Arizona State's Kenny Dillingham has earned more bonus money in a single school year than any football coach at a public school.
Dillingham will collect at least $3.056 million in on-field and academic performance-related bonuses for the 2024-25 school year, which surpasses the $3 million that Michigan paid John Harbaugh for winning the national championship in 2023-24, according to a database of public college coaches' contracts maintained by USA TODAY Sports.
Dillingham received $2.604 million in football-related bonuses after the Sun Devils finished the season with an 11-3 record, won the Big 12 Conference and earned the No. 4 seed in the College Football Playoff. Arizona State lost its quarterfinal game against Texas in the Peach Bowl finished No. 7 in the final US LBM Top 25 Coaches Poll.
Dillingham will also receive at least $502,500 in academic-related bonuses for the team's Academic Progress Rate, Graduation Success Rate, Grade Point Average and enrolling three new scholarship student athletes in the Barrett Honors College. This extra half-million dollars pushes Dillingham past Harbaugh and into first place on the list for most bonus money in a single school year since 2019, when USA TODAY Sports began keeping track of these payments.
Most college coaches' contracts, acquired by USA TODAY Sports through public records requests, do not include such lucrative bonus incentives for academic performance.
Indiana's Curt Cignetti ($1.5 million) and Iowa State's Matt Campbell ($1.35 million) earned the second- and third-largest bonuses among college football coaches during the 2024-25 school year, and neither has academic performance-related incentives in their contracts on file with USA TODAY Sports.
Dillingham gave $300,000 of his bonus to his staff, the school confirmed.
The coach earned a $200,000 bonus for winning a ninth regular-season game, which he distributed among more than 20 staff members around Thanksgiving, as has been reported, and later distributed another $100,000, which has not been previously reported.
Dillingham's compensation was among the lowest in Big 12 Conference
Dillingham's annual compensation in 2024 was $3.95 million, which ranked 11th out of 12 football coaches at public schools in the Big 12 Conference and served as the basis for many of his on-field bonuses. (Baylor and TCU are private schools, are not subject to open-records laws and do not release their coaches' contracts.)
Dillingham's annual compensation increased to $5.8 million in 2025, after his contract was renegotiated and approved by the Arizona Board of Regents.
Dillingham collects more than $2.6 million in football bonuses
Dillingham received $2.604 million in bonuses for on-field performance.
∎ $200,000 for the ninth regular-season win.
∎ $300,000 for the 10th regular-season win.
∎ $395,000 for appearing in the conference championship game. (10% of annual salary.)
∎ $395,000 for winning the conference championship game. (10% of annual salary.)
∎ $1,185,000 for an appearance in the College Football Playoff. (30% of annual salary.)
∎ $79,000 for the top-10 final ranking. (2% of annual salary.)
∎ $50,000 for being named Big 12 Coach of the Year.
Dillingham to receive more than $500,000 in academic bonuses
Dillingham will receive at least $502,500 for his student-athletes' academic performance.
∎ $290,000 for the football program's multi-year APR score of 973 out of 1,000 that was released this spring. (5% of his updated 2025 compensation of $5.8 million, the school confirmed, for a multi-year APR score of at least 969. This bonus would have doubled for a multi-year APR score over 974.) APR measures the eligibility and retention of each student-athlete for each academic term.
∎ $100,000 for a team GSR above 86%. (The GSR was 87%.) GSR reflects the NCAA's calculation of the percentage of student-athletes on a team who graduate within six years of entering college.
∎ $62,500 for team GPA equal to or greater than 2.80. (This is the amount Dillingham received during the 2023-24 school year, when the team GPA was 2.84. The 2024-25 team GPA is calculated after summer school. This annual bonus jumps to $100,000 for a 2.90 GPA and to $150,000 for a 3.0 GPA.)
∎ $50,000 for having between three and six new scholarship student athletes enroll in the Barrett Honors College. The Arizona State football team doubled the number of football scholarship student-athletes enrolled, adding three newcomers to increase the total to six.
The group is comprised of sophomore defensive back Keith Abney II, sophomore running back Kyson Brown, freshman punter Kanyon Floyd, freshman linebacker Martell Hughes, freshman linebacker Isaiah Iosefa and freshman quarterback Cameron Dyer.
How Kenny Dillingham edged Harbaugh's record bonus
Harbaugh received $3 million in bonuses for the 2023-24 school year, when Michigan won the national championship, the university confirmed.
Harbaugh was eligible to receive up to another $150,000 for an APR bonus, which would have kept him atop the all-time single-year bonus list, but the amount and whether it was paid were at the school's discretion, according to his contract.
Harbaugh was not paid the APR bonus for that season, Michigan confirmed, because the payment is made in the spring and he had already resigned to become head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers.
The non-payment ensures Dillingham will receive the most bonus money in a single school year.