Dan Mullen: Contract details revealed for new UNLV head coach

The UNLV Rebels made a major splash this offseason, managing to get Dan Mullen out of broadcasting and back on the sidelines. Now, in the wake of that massive hire, the contract details for Mullen at UNLV have been revealed and the numbers are impressive.

The deal with Mullen and UNLV will pay him $17.5 million over five seasons. That’s the equivalent to $3.5 million per season. However, if he makes it to the end of this deal, he will make a minimum of $18.1 million for the course of the deal.

The deal for Dan Mullen represents a major increase in spending for UNLV. Last season, the Rebels paid Barry Odom $1.75 million, which at the time made him the highest-paid coach in state history. Mullen has now surpassed that mark. For his part, Barry Odom’s new contract at Purdue is for six years and comes with $39 million in base pay.

This amount of spending is massive within the Mountain West Conference too. Dan Mullen is now the highest-paid coach in the conference. He surpasses Colorado State head coach Jay Norvell, who made $1.8 million in 2024.

Within the state of Nevada, Nevada Wolf Pack coach Jeff Choate, his 10 full-time assistants and his lead strength coach made a combined $3,168,692 in 2024. Individually, Choate makes $1.1 million in 2025.

On top of that base salary, Dan Mullen will also be available to make bonuses. That includes bonuses for the team’s performance, GPA, and retention. He had a signing bonus of $35,000 and could earn retention bonuses of $100,000 on January 15, 2027, $200,000 on January 15, 2028, and $300,000 on January 15, 2029 if still employed by UNLV on those dates.

The buyout for Mullen is 80 percent of his remaining contract if UNLV were to fire him. However, if he were to leave for a new power conference job or an NFL job, UNLV would be owed a $7 million buyout if he left t before December 1, 2025. That would fall by $1 million per year. If Mullen left for another Group of Five job, UNLV would be owed $5 million. Again, that number falls by $1 million annually.

Mullen has been a head coach in the SEC, first with Mississippi State and later with Florida. He has a career record of 103-61. That included taking the Bulldogs to eight straight bowl games and leaving as second in program history for wins as a head coach. Despite that, he left for Florida where he found success early in his tenure, going to three New Year’s Six bowls without finishing lower than 13th in the AP Poll. However, after running into issues during the 2021 season, however, Florida parted ways with Mullen.

Since then, Dan Mullen has moved into broadcasting, looking for the best opportunity for him. That has turned into the UNLV job.