College football’s 25 most powerful people: Who’s too high and too low?
USA TODAY’s Matt Hayes joined Before The Snap to explain why Greg Sankey and Tony Petitti are ranked too high among CFB’s 25 most powerful people.
The University of Oklahoma and football head coach Brent Venables agreed to a new contract that includes a $1 million reduction in his pay for the 2025 season, according to a copy of the document obtained by USA TODAY Sports on Friday, Aug. 29, through an open-records request.
The agreement’s expiration date and future payment amounts beyond the 2025 season for Venables remained unchanged from the parties’ prior contract. The deal is set to run through Jan. 31, 2030, with Venables now set to make $7.55 million for this season but still set to make $8.65 million for each of the 2026 and 2027 seasons, $8.75 million for the 2028 season and $8.85 million for the 2029 season.
Also, as with the prior version of the contract, all of those amounts are fully guaranteed if Venables is fired without cause, subject to his duty to find another athletics-related job and the university being entitled to offset from his future employment income.
“It was initiated by Coach Venables as a one-time give-back to contribute to the department’s revenue-sharing efforts,” an Oklahoma athletics department spokesman said.
Under the settlement of three athlete-compensation antitrust cases against the NCAA and the Power Five conferences, on July 1, schools could begin directly paying their athletes for the use of the athletes’ name, image and likeness. Those payments and other new benefits allowed under the settlement can total up to $20.5 million for the 2025-26 school year.
The new agreement was signed by the parties in early February.
Venables is heading into his fourth season as Oklahoma’s coach. He has a 22-17 record in his first three seasons, including a 6-7 record last season — OU’s first in the Southeastern Conference. The Sooners were 2-6 in SEC play, their worst conference record since 1997 when they were a member of the Big 12.
Venables is not the only the Power Four conference coach who is taking a pay reduction for the 2025 season. Florida State’s Mike Norvell agreed to a $4.5 million cut in what he has been scheduled to make this season, although his restructured contract includes provisions that give him the opportunity to win back that money if he reaches a new performance incentive. Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy agreed to a $1 million reduction, a reduced buyout and the elimination of the annual rollover provision that had kept Gundy’s contract at a perpetual five-year deal. Florida State went 2-10 last season, and Oklahoma State finished with a 3-9 record.
LSU coach Brian Kelly and his wife, Paqui, announced this past December they would match $1 million in donations given to LSU’s name-image-and-likeness collective, Bayou Traditions, specifically for the football team through Feb. 5. The Kellys’ money was to go to the Tiger Athletic Foundation.
