Mel Tucker won’t be the only one to realize a financial benefit from moving to Michigan State football.
Days after confirming his commitment to Colorado, Mel Tucker stunned most of the college football world by unconfirming and decommitting from the Pac-12 school. Wednesday morning, Colorado acknowledged that Tucker had resigned his position, effective immediately. A short time later, Michigan State football announced that Tucker had officially been hired to replace Mark Dantonio as head coach.
Tucker left Colorado for Michigan State football after just one season. In that one season with the Buffaloes, Tucker was paid $2.4 million in guaranteed compensation. That number was ninth among Pac-12 coaches. At MSU, Tucker will more than double that number as his six-year contract will average $5.5 million annually.
In further contractual news released Thursday, Tucker’s deal also calls for a $6 million salary pool from which the new Michigan State football head coach can hire his 10 on-field assistants. That is nearly double the $3.2 million from which Tucker had to work at Colorado.
Additionally, it’s more than $1 million more than what Dantonio’s contract called for in his final season at MSU.
That $6 million figure would’ve been third in the Big Ten in 2019. Ohio State was at $7.245 million, which was well ahead of No. 2 Michigan at $6.005 million.
Given the potential for NCAA sanctions in East Lansing because of an ongoing off-field situation, there’s also interesting language included in Tucker’s contract that would protect the new head coach.