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Paul Finebaum criticizes Curt Cignetti extension, compares to Jimbo Fisher, Mel Tucker

by: Alex Byington10/16/25_AlexByington
PaulFinebaum-CurtCignetti
Paul Finebaum (Brett Davis-Imagn Images) | Curt Cignetti (Rich Janzaruk-Herald-Times/USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

Fresh off last Saturday’s 30-20 road upset of former No. 3 Oregon, Indiana‘s Curt Cignetti has become the hottest name in college football. So much so that the second-year Hoosiers head coach was considered among the early frontrunners in the newly-created Penn State opening following James Franklin‘s midseason firing Sunday.

Well, consider that particular door slammed shut Thursday afternoon after Indiana announced Cignetti has agreed to a highly-lucrative eight-year contract extension that will pay him an average annual salary of $11.6 million. With his new deal, Cignetti moves ahead of USC‘s Lincoln Riley ($11.5m) to become the third-highest paid college football coach in the nation behind Georgia‘s Kirby Smart ($13.3m) and Ohio State‘s Ryan Day ($12.6m) — both of whom have won at least one national championship.

Of course, not everyone was thrilled by the news of Cignetti’s new pay raise. Upon announcing the deal live on air in the 4 pm ET hour of his SEC Network show, ESPN’s Paul Finebuam denounced the extension and chastised Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson for even offering it — especially given the timing.

“I think this is how athletic directors get in trouble. They try to get these emotional hires. I mean, he already had a big contract. Why did you have to sign him today? Were you afraid you were going to lose him? Obviously, they were. … I frankly think this is a terrible move by Indiana,” Finebaum said Thursday afternoon on The Paul Finebaum Show. “I know that the college football cognoscenti will disagree with me, but there’s no way in the world that Curt Cignetti should be the third-highest paid coach in the country. He’s not in Kirby Smart’s league. He’s not in Ryan Day’s league. He has a big win on the road against Oregon.”

Paul Finebaum predicts Indiana AD will be ‘run out of’ Bloomington in five years

“Now listen, I realize he might end up winning the national championship, and those that cover college football are very high on him. But this is not how you make sound decisions. This is how you take your university to the ledge and at some point end up paying for it. … But you just mortgaged your university to an astronomical contract based on what? He didn’t beat anybody last year. And I know I’m going to be excoriated for sounding like that guy against Curt Cignetti, but I’m just being realistic,” Finebaum continued. “It’s too bad somebody didn’t say the same thing I’m saying about Jimbo Fisher or Mel Tucker or any of these other coaches that ended up with these ridiculous (buyouts). Well I did say this about James Franklin. So it’s a great day for Curt Cignetti, but I’ll make a prediction: that athletic director probably gets run out of there in about five years because they’re not going to be able to sustain this.”

Finebaum’s comparison to the unprecendented fully-guaranteed 10-year, $75 million contract Fisher signed with Texas A&M in late 2017 is not completely off base. Cignetti’s 8-year, $93.25 million deal is also fully guaranteed, meaning he’ll be owed every remaining penny should he be fired without cause.

The 64-year-old Cignetti is 17-2 in 1 1/2 seasons at Indiana, including winning 10 straight to open his inaugural campaign in 2024 before dropping two of the Hoosiers’ final three games last season. Of course, that was still good enough to secure Indiana’s first-ever appearance in the College Football Playoffs, where it lost 27-17 to eventual national runner-up Notre Dame in the opening round.

Cignetti, who previously agreed to an extension prior to the 2025 season that paid him $8.3 million annually, has Indiana off to a perfect 6-0 start overall and ranked No. 3 in the latest AP Top 25 poll. It’s been a stunning turnaround for a Hoosiers program that went 3-9 the season prior to Cignetti’s arrival.