After months of speculation, a new pact for Urban Meyer is quickly coming to fruition.
Ohio State announced Thursday that a committee of the Board of Trustees has approved a two-year contract extension for their head football coach. A vote on the contract as part of the full board agenda is scheduled to take place Friday.
The extension would leave Meyer signed through the 2022 season. It will also pay him $7.6 million in 2018, a raise of $1.2 million over what he pulled in last year. It will also push him past Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh as the highest-paid coach in the Big Ten and makes him the second-highest-paid head coach in college football behind Alabama’s Nick Saban.
Meyer will be entering his seventh season with the Buckeyes, with his 73 wins from 2012-17 second to Alabama in that span and his eight losses tied with ‘Bama for the fewest. On his watch, OSU has claimed at least a share of the Big Ten East/Legends division all six years, two conference championships and the 2014 national title.
“I want to thank President Michael V. Drake for his guidance and the Board of Trustees for its work in considering this extension,” athletic director Gene Smith said in a statement. “I think everyone will agree that we have one of the finest coaches and mentors in Urban Meyer leading our football program.”