Contract details revealed for Mike Elko at Texas A&M

After a roller coaster of a coaching search in College Station, Texas A&M has settled on Mike Elko, formerly of the Duke Blue Devils, as their next head coach. Now, with money playing a major role in the conversation with the Aggies, we know more about what Elko’s deal will look like.

Elko will have a base salary of $7 million but athletic director Ross Bjork made sure to make the contract an incentive-based one. Wanting to be one of the best programs in college football, the expectation is to compete for national championships. If Elko can do so on an annual basis, he will earn himself a nice chunk of change.

• $1 million for making the College Football Playoff
• $1.5 million for advancing to the CFP Quarter Finals and/or winning the SEC
• $2 million for advancing to the CFP Semi Finals
• $2.5 million for advancing to the CFP national championship game
• $3.5 for winning the CFP national championship

Texas A&M Athletics has released the key terms of Mike Elko’s contract. pic.twitter.com/1qEiyExCtE

— TexAgs (@TexAgs) November 27, 2023

Elko arrives after two seasons in Durham where he became one of the nation’s hottest coaching names. He did so by leading Duke to a 16-9 record and a pair of bowl berths. In the three seasons prior to his arrival, the Blue Devils were 10-25 with no postseason appearances. At a hard place to win in football, he’s done a phenomenal job there.

With tons of coaching experience, Elko has spent the past decade at the Power Five level. That included three seasons at Wake Forest, one at Notre Dame, and the three prior to his first head coaching gig at Texas A&M as the defensive coordinator on the staff of Jimbo Fisher. The defense on those teams was long considered a major strength of the team.

Mike Elko has also spent a lot of time at smaller schools, having played and coached at Penn. Early in his career, he also coached at Merchant Marine, Fordham, and Richmond among others.

There was controversy around the hiring process at Texas A&M. Following the last week of the regular season, it was rumored that Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops was going to land the job at Texas A&M. However, that seemed to fall apart quickly before Mike Elko was eventually hired.