Last year, Mizzou beat South Carolina for the 4th consecutive time to improve to 4-4 heading into November. At that point in the home stretch of Year 3, Eli Drinkwitz had yet to lead the Tigers to a winning record. The Tigers had played 1 game ranked inside the College Football Playoff poll and the lone wins away from Columbia came against South Carolina and Vanderbilt.

But that didn’t stop Drinkwitz from getting the ultimate stamp of approval from his boss.

The morning of Mizzou’s Nov. 5 game against Kentucky, the program announced that Drinkwitz received a raise and an extension. The raise pushed his annual salary from $4 million to $6 million with annual raises that eventually would earn him $7 million per season in the final year of his deal in 2027. It was a surprisingly significant commitment made by Mizzou athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois, who succeeded Jim Sterk in December 2021.

That raise and extension is exactly why this next new contract shouldn’t be surprising at all.

For all we know, that’s being negotiated during the bye week and it’ll be announced before the Georgia game. That would follow a similar pattern to last year when that deal was announced on the heels of the South Carolina win.

The difference this year is that Mizzou is 7-1, which is the program’s best 8-game start since 2013. When the first Playoff poll comes out on Halloween next week, it’ll likely be the Tigers’ best ranking in the Playoff poll since at least 2014 when it was ranked No. 16 in the final CFP Poll. Depending on how teams around them perform during the bye week, it could be the program’s best Playoff poll ranking ever.

If you don’t think super-agent Jimmy Sexton is going to cash in on that, you haven’t been paying attention.

Let’s also remember that 7 of the SEC’s 14 coaches make at least $9 million annually. Per USA Today, the conference’s annual average salary is $7.6 million. Drinkwitz might’ve gotten a 50% raise last year, but he’s still behind more recently hired coaches like Brian Kelly ($9.975 million), Josh Heupel ($9 million), Billy Napier ($7.27 million), Hugh Freeze ($6.5 million) and Shane Beamer ($6.5 million). Sam Pittman ($5.25 million) and Zach Arnett ($3 million) are the only SEC coaches with listed salaries who make less than Drinkwitz (Vanderbilt is private so terms of Clark Lea’s contract aren’t disclosed … but it’s reportedly less than $4 million).

That’s not even factoring in Brent Venables ($7.25 million average) and Steve Sarkisian ($5.7 million average), both of whom could be in store for raises before officially joining the SEC.

Drinkwitz is getting a raise. That’s not really in question. It’s just a matter of how significant that raise will be and how many years will be added to his current deal, which runs through 2027.

Does that mean Drinkwitz is destined for another 50% raise to get him into that increasingly popular $9 million club like half the SEC coaches? Never rule it out with Sexton.

Perhaps it won’t be the percentage of the contract that matches the previous raise and it’ll instead be the raw number that repeats. Could we really see a $2 million annual bump in store to get Drinkwitz into the $8 million club? It doesn’t seem impossible, though it is shocking to think about him potentially earning twice as much as Gary Pinkel’s $4.02 million salary during his final season in 2015 (H/T STLToday.com). That previous raise and extension initially put Drinkwitz 8th among SEC head coaches.

Putting him in the $8 million club would again put him at 8th, at least for the time being. As we saw soon after Drinkwitz’s extension was announced, that ranking is extremely fluid in the SEC.

Take the annual bump in pay for what it is. Shoot, Kentucky and Ole Miss are both paying football coaches $9 million. Welcome to the new world.

More significant would be what that potential buyout could be. The deal, which runs through 2027 and pays between $6-7 million with annual $250,000 raises, states that Mizzou is on the hook for 75% of whatever is owed on the contract if Drinkwitz is fired without cause.

By my math based on those terms, here’s how much the Mizzou coach would be owed if fired at the end of each season (terms via Power Mizzou):

  • 2023: $19,875,000
  • 2024: $15,187,500
  • 2025: $10,312,500

Keep in mind that according to STLToday.com, Drinkwitz’s buyout would be partially offset by whatever his next job would be, and he’s required to pursue one. If fired under the current structure of the deal, he’d be owed $6 million within 30 days and the rest of the deal would be paid out in annual installments through 2027.

That’s a long-winded way of saying that this raise will probably be richer than the casual fan realizes. Barring a Dan Mullen-like extension wherein he received a bump in annual pay but he had an unchanged buyout, that number will inevitably increase.

Just for this discussion, let’s say that Drinkwitz gets a contract that pays him $8 million annually and he gets 2 years added to his contract to run through 2029. That would be $48 million remaining on the deal, and if he’s still owed 75% of the remaining contract at the time of a firing, his buyout terms would look something like this:

  • After 2024: $36 million
  • 2025: $30 million
  • 2026: $24 million
  • 2027: $18 million
  • 2028: $12 million

Even with the offset clause still part of that contract, that’s a daunting number. There’s no guarantee that Drinkwitz would immediately get another Power 5 head coaching job, which would be the quickest way to reduce that buyout owed by Mizzou.

A 2-year extension and a raise that bumps Drinkwitz’s pay to $8 million average would have significant ramifications. It would make Mizzou commit to him for at least another 2 seasons, and possibly 3. Remember that Drinkwitz’s mentor, Gus Malzahn, received the richest buyout ever paid to a college head coach, and that was $21.5 million. Maybe that’ll change soon.

Mizzou would prefer not to think about that possibility and instead build on the most momentum it’s had both on and off the field — the in-state NIL recruiting legislation for high school athletes is as favorable as it gets — would its best season in recent memory. Earning its first New Year’s 6 bowl of the Playoff era is on the table, even with a loss to Georgia.

In the coming days, weeks, or maybe months, we’re going to find out just how committed to Drinkwitz that Mizzou is.

Brace yourself for some more sticker shock.