Yahoo News Ohio State coach Ryan Day gets three-year extension and a pay raise after a successful first season
Ohio State coach Ryan Day is entering his second season as the Buckeyes’ permanent head coach. And he’s already getting a hefty contract extension.
OSU announced Tuesday that Day’s contract had been extended through the 2026 season. The three-year extension gives Day a large pay raise over the life of his contract and will, undoubtedly, be approved by Ohio State’s board of trustees later this week.
“Ryan Day’s management of this football program, from mentoring and leading our student-athletes in their academic pursuits and off-field endeavors to coaching them on the playing field, has been exceptional,” Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said. “I am appreciative of his work. And I want to thank President Michael V. Drake for his leadership and the Board of Trustees for its work with this extension.”
Day was named Urban Meyer’s successor after Meyer retired at the end of the 2018 season. Day was also the team’s interim coach for the first three games of Meyer’s final season because of the longtime coach’s suspension for his role in handling allegations against former assistant coach Zach Smith.
Ohio State sent Meyer off with a Rose Bowl win and got even better in Day’s first season. Ohio State went 13-1 and didn’t lose a game until falling to Clemson in the semifinals of the College Football Playoff.
Per USA Today’s coaching salary database, Day’s 2019 salary was No. 22 among college football head coaches at $4.5 million. Thanks to this extension, Day’s salary will jump to over $5.3 million in 2020. The contract increases Day’s salary annually to $7.6 million in 2022 before Ohio State will then determine what Day’s salary should be going forward for the remaining years on his deal.
Just four coaches made over $7 million per season in college football in 2019: Clemson’s Dabo Swinney, Alabama’s Nick Saban, Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh and Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher.
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
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