It's not even November, but the Penn State job has already gotten two Big Ten coaches extensions. Indiana's Curt Cignetti signed a new 8-year deal two weeks ago today, and then on Thursday Matt Rhule inked a 2-year extension keeping him under contract at Nebraska through 2032.
The 2032 part is not important -- his salary for those years remains unchanged, if it even makes it that far -- but ESPN's Pete Thamel noted that the extension comes with a $15 million buyout if Rhule took another job during this cycle. In exchange for that, Rhule's extension includes a new clause that increases his base salary by $1 million each time Nebraska qualifies for the College Football Playoff. Presently, Rhule earns $8.5 million, but will see his compensation bump to $11 million by 2027, including a retention bonus. His compensation rises to $12.5 million by 2030, which is now what he'd be set to earn for the 2031 and 2032 contract years.
Whether Rhule can lead Nebraska to the College Football Playoff is another matter, and a matter of question on how central he was to the Penn State search and, thus, how necessary this extension even was for Nebraska.
Nebraska is currently 6-2 and unranked heading into Saturday's game with No. 23 USC (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC). He has not beaten a ranked opponent at the time of the game since dethroning No. 19 Navy while at Temple back on Dec. 3, 2016. (Nebraska did beat Cincinnati this season, who was not ranked at the time but is now ranked.) At present, Nebraska is 18-15 overall, and 9-14 in Big Ten play.
Would Penn State fans embraced a coach with those numbers (who's also 2-23 lifetime as a ranked opponent) as a suitable replacement for James Franklin? Was the Penn State search even targeting him? And another question to consider -- which I did on this very site two weeks ago -- was whether Rhule would even want the Penn State job himself. Franklin, for all his failings, would be an incredibly tough act to follow -- and a risky reclamation project for someone as emotionally tied to the program as Rhule is.
Either way, Rhule got an extension out of the opening. And, to be fair, it's a low-risk extension for Nebraska with a sweetener that Rhule would have earned -- if he earns it.