Of Purdue salaries: A football coach and a president

Purdue trustees on the rising cost to get a football coach and expectations this year for Mung Chiang. Plus, a reorg for Daniels School of Business. The Feast sets dates. And more BiL Holiday Playlist

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OF PURDUE SALARIES: A FOOTBALL COACH AND A PRESIDENT

‘WE’RE NOT HERE TO GO 1-11:’ Purdue trustees on Friday almost sounded like they were trying to rationalize what it took to hire Barry Odom, the Boilers’ new football coach, a little over a week after the university fired second-year coach Ryan Walters at the end of a brutal 1-11 season.

Odom’s six-year contract includes base pay of $39 million, plus incentives for academic and on-field performance. That compares to the five-year, $20 million contract Walters had when he arrived in West Lafayette in 2023. And it compares to a seven-year, $36.8 million contract extension Purdue gave Jeff Brohm in 2018, as other schools came calling to hire him away.

Barry Odom, new Purdue head football coach. (Photo: Dave Bangert)

“It’s a lot of money, as we all know – probably one of the highest paid public officials in the state of Indiana,” Trustee Gary Lehman said Friday, ahead of trustees ratifying a memorandum of understand outlining the contract terms with Odom.

“But when we look at what the market is for coaches – I just read a $50 million package for a coach down in North Carolina; that school down in Bloomington just signed an eight-year (contract) well above this,” Lehman said, “the reality is, if we want a first-class program – which I think most of us feel that we need to have at the university – we’ve got to be competitive. … I don’t want to diminish the fact that that’s a lot of money for a coach, but we’re also putting a lot of emphasis on a program that we can be proud of.”