Report: Kenny Dillingham, Arizona State agree to new contract with hefty raise, incentives

Ahead of the College Football Playoff quarterfinals, Kenny Dillingham and Arizona State have agreed to a new five-year contract, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel. The deal includes a raise and a slew of incentives, which could extend it to 10 years.

Dillingham’s new contract will put him in the “top tier” of Big 12 coaches, Thamel reported. Arizona State is furthering its commitment to football in the process and will add 20 more scholarships with the limit of 105 set to come into effect, pending final approval of the House v. NCAA settlement.

In addition, Arizona State plans to be a full participant in the revenue-sharing portion of the House settlement and will increase its commitment to the football staff. It’s part of the university’s plan to stay in the “national spotlight,” as a source told Thamel.

Dillingham made $3.95 million in base salary this past season, according to the On3 Coach Salaries Index, and that number went up thanks to incentives. That put him 13th among Big 12 coaches. His new deal will take him toward the upper echelon of coach salaries in the league, and it comes as Arizona State gets ready for its first College Football Playoff game.

Kenny Dillingham continues to build at Arizona State

Dillingham engineered an impressive turnaround at his alma mater this year. Arizona State went from 3-9 in 2023 to 11-2 and a Big 12 championship this season. The Sun Devils are currently getting ready to take on Texas in the CFP quarterfinals on Wednesday after coming in as the No. 4 seed.

Ahead of Wednesday’s Peach Bowl, Dillingham was asked about what it means to get Arizona State back to national prominence after some tumultuous times. A Phoenix native, he knows first-hand what it means when the Sun Devils have success.

“The city is so like transit that you have this big town that’s filled with transit people, and you have a small town, Tempe, where it was ASU football and the Phoenix Suns 20 years ago, when the Outlaws were there, not the Arizona Cardinals, before the Coyotes were there and left. You have this weird mix of small-town, big city,” Dillingham said. “So my challenge in college sports is it’s really hard to win in big cities, so how do you convert this old, small town, the feel, with this big city vibe.

“So you had to re-root, essentially, the small-town feel of all those people that are still in the city and get them to convince all the other people in the city that this is the thing to do. That’s what makes, I think, Arizona State a unique job is that there is still that small city of 20 years ago fans to the university and football while also having a fifth-largest city in the country. I thought that was the big picture was how do you merge that into a small town big city feel, which is unique in college football, and if you can do that, support equals winning in college football.