Report: Penn State offered BYU's Kalani Sitake north of $10 million per year

BYU’s Kalani Sitake reportedly became a major candidate, before ultimately not taking the job, in the coaching search at Penn State. And he, in not leaving Provo for University Park, apparently turned down quite the offer made by the Nittany Lions.

CBS Sports further reported on Sitake’s decision to remain at Brigham Young in an article, done by Richard Johnson, on Thursday. In that piece, it was revealed that he turned down nearly double his previous annual salary with the Cougars to not coach the Nittany Lions, with Penn State having offered him an average around $10 million.

“Sources on both the Penn State and BYU sides believed Sitake was going to leave to be the head coach of Penn State,” they wrote at CBS Sports. “In Happy Valley, Nittany Lion administrators had been operating with confidence that Sitake was going to be their man for weeks, and it was only Tuesday when it became apparent that Sitake was going to stay at BYU. That decision surprised sources at BYU, Penn State and even those familiar with Sitake’s thinking.”

“There are also the fiscal realities of the situation,” they added. “According to multiple sources, Sitake’s salary at BYU was around $4 million per year. That figure put him in the bottom half of Big 12 head coach pay. Penn State’s package was set to more than double his salary to north of $10 million per year.”

With no hire made since the firing of James Franklin on October 12th, many have wondered where this search stands after nearly eight weeks in Happy Valley. Sitake, though, then emerged over the past few days as a candidate for the Nittany Lions, with that longer timeline making more sense with BYU set to play in the Big 12 Championship and could, with a win on Saturday, be in the College Football Playoff.

However, by Tuesday, Sitake shared his intentions to remain at Brigham Young. That’s as the Cougars, reportedly with the help of donor and booster funding, are now set to invest significantly into the football program both in dollars put into the staff, roster, and so on, and with a long-term extension for their coach who is 83-44 (.654), including 56-19 (.747) since 2020 and 22-3 (.880) the past two seasons so far, over a decade in Provo.

“In the end, Sitake’s extension at BYU is set to make him the highest paid coach in the Big 12 besides Colorado’s Deion Sanders, who makes $10.8 million on average,” they wrote. “The extension will also include an increased salary pool for assistants and enhanced compensation for a roster whose price was approximately $10 million in 2025 (including rev-share and third-party NIL funds), which was the bottom of the Big 12…Money can be a bit of a touchy subject around BYU athletics. Tensions exist surrounding the resources the school was devoting to basketball versus football.”

Regardless of which school he decided on, Sitake has ended up, because of this, amongst the highest-paid coaches in all of college football at that reported salary per year. That said, Penn State now looks to be even more desperate, with their latest perceived top candidate turning down that kind of offer to come coach the Nittany Lions.