After winning two national titles in three years, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney has received the biggest contract in college football history.
University trustees approved the 10-year, $92 million deal Friday. It runs through 2028 and includes two new clauses to make sure Swinney, 49, stays with the Tigers and stays one of the sport's best-paid coaches as long as he keeps winning.
The buyout in Swinney's contract increases significantly if he leaves Clemson to coach at Alabama, where he was a walk-on wide receiver and assistant coach in the 1990s. Swinney must pay $4 million if he leaves Clemson before the end of this year, but the buyout increases to $6 million if he coaches the Crimson Tide.
The deal also requires Swinney to be one of the three highest-paid coaches in college football any season after his team makes the playoff semifinals or he can leave without penalty.
Swinney's contract is bigger than the $74 million, eight-year deal Alabama's Nick Saban has through 2025 and the 10-year, $75 million contract Jimbo Fisher signed with Texas A&M through 2027.
Swinney's first head coaching contract at Clemson, in 2009, paid him $800,000 a year, the lowest salary in the Atlantic Coast Conference. He went 15-12 his first two full seasons and is 97-15 since then. Hs team has played in the past four college football playoffs and won two national titles, both over Alabama.
Golf
Woods appears set to sit out until PGA
Masters champion Tiger Woods is not ready to get back to work.
Woods did not enter the Wells Fargo Championship next week in Charlotte, N.C., meaning he likely will go a month without playing until the PGA Championship at Bethpage Black on May 16-19.