Dabo Swinney to be paid average of $6.75 million through 2024

ByADAM RITTENBERG
August 25, 2017, 10:41 AM

— -- Clemson coach Dabo Swinney on Friday received a dramatically upgraded contract that will pay him an average of $6.75 million through 2024.

The compensation committee of Clemson's board of trustees approved the new contract for Swinney, who guided Clemson to the national championship last season and is 89-28 at the school.

The front-loaded deal will pay Swinney $7.5 million for the rest of 2017 -- a $6 million base salary and a $1.5 million signing bonus. Swinney also receives a $1 million insurance premium payment up front. He becomes the second college coach to earn more than $7 million in a single year (Alabama's Nick Saban is the other).

Swinney will receive an average of $7.06 million through the first five years of the deal, which includes a $1 million retention bonus on March 1, 2019, and another $700,000 retention bonus on March 1, 2021.

If Swinney chooses to leave Clemson for another job before Jan. 1, 2019, he would owe the school $6 million. His buyout then drops to $4 million. Performance incentives in the deal include $200,000 bonuses for reaching the College Football Playoff semifinal and national title game, and $250,000 for winning the national championship.

The 47-year-old coach had agreed to a six-year, $31.75 million deal with Clemson in April 2016.

Excluding bonuses, his last deal started at $4.8 million for 2016 and increased to $5.65 million in 2021. The new deal starts at $6 million for 2017 and increases to $6.6 million by the end of 2024, but that doesn't include the $1.5 million signing bonuses he also gets for 2017.