Double what KF makes.
The 49-year-old Cleveland native is set to become among the highest-paid coaches in the country.
Alumni Mat Ishbia and Steve St. Andre will donate the private funding to the university for Tucker’s raise. Ishbia, a walk-on member of the Spartans’ 2000 national championship basketball team and a 2003 graduate of MSU’s Eli Broad College of Business,
is chairman, president and CEO of United Wholesale Mortgage, which went public in January. The 41-year-old also made
a $32 million cash donation in February to help construct a new football facility.
It is not clear if Tucker's assistant coaches salary pool - $6 million according to the contract he signed in 2020 — will increase under this new contract.
The deal surpasses the estimated $7 million contract of Penn State’s James Franklin that is the highest salary in the Big Ten in 2021, according to
a USA TODAY salary database.
Only former MSU coach Nick Saban at Alabama ($9.753 million) is making more this season than Tucker will under his reworked contract, according to the database. LSU's Ed Orgeron is the second-highest-paid coach in college football this year at $9.012 million.
Tucker's $5.632 million in total compensation this season was fourth among Big Ten coaches and 13th nationally, according to USA TODAY.