Ryan Day is getting a contract extension and a raise.
After leading Ohio State to a 13-1 record, a Big Ten championship and a berth in the College Football Playoff in his first season as the Buckeyes’ head coach, Day is set to receive a three-year contract extension that will run through the 2026 football season and will pay him more than $20 million in total pay over the next three seasons.
Per the terms of the contract extension, which is expected to be approved by the Board of Trustees later this week, Day will be paid approximately $5.74 million for the 2020 season, while Ohio State will also make a $1 million contribution to his retirement plan on Dec. 31, 2020. Day will receive $6.5 million in total compensation for the 2021 season and $7.6 million in 2022.
Increases to Day’s compensation for the 2023-26 seasons will be determined at a later date.
Day’s initial contract paid him $4.5 million in 2019 (not including the $450,000 he also received in bonuses) and was set to run through the 2023 season.
“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 in a statement. “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.”
The new contract will make Day the Big Ten’s second-highest-paid coach in 2020, behind Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh.
Correction: This article previously stated that Day would be the Big Ten's third-highest-paid coach, also behind Penn State's James Franklin, but under the terms of his new contract released Wednesday, Franklin will make $5.7 million in 2020.
