Since arriving as the head coach of the BYU Cougars in 2016, Kalani Sitake has delivered regular success to the Provo-based program. Having been rewarded with an “unprecedented” contract in 2021, what is Sitake’s salary, contract, and net worth?
Kalani Sitake’s Salary and Contract in 2023
After leading BYU to a 10-win season and as rumors swirled linking him to the head coach vacancy at Oregon — the Deseret News reported he’d spoken with the Ducks — Sitake signed a contract extension in December 2021 that will keep him as the Cougars’ head coach through the 2027 season.
It was Sitake’s second contract extension in less than a year, having originally penned a deal ahead of the 2021 campaign that kept him in Provo until 2025. As the vultures circled, BYU fought off any potential suitor from swooping in and snapping up a coach who has led the program since 2016.
A statement from the program described the contract as “unprecedented,” while athletic director Tom Holmoe enthused about what Sitake brings to the program, and what he means to the Cougars.
“Today, I’m thrilled to know that Kalani will continue to be our leader, coach, and mentor going forward. In the past 50 years, BYU has had only four head football coaches. Consistency, creativity, and culture have been our hallmarks. Kalani will continue to strengthen our football team culture and develop young leaders based on his emphasis of ‘love and learning.'”
There has certainly been a love affair between program and coach. Sitake was a standout player for the Cougars, joining the program in 1994 but finding success following his return for a two-year LDS mission to Oakland. A three-year starter between 1998 and 2000, Sitake earned multiple program honors and was a team captain in his final season in Provo.
That leadership quality continued on his return to the program as a head coach in 2016. Other than in 2017, Sitake has led the Cougars to winning seasons every year, with double-digit win campaigns in 2020 and the 2021 season that concluded with his latest contract extension.
So, what is it that makes Sitake’s contract extension so “unprecedented”?
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BYU’s program has a reputation for long-tenured coaches, so it’s hardly the length of the contract that provoked such a response from AD Holmoe. Perhaps then, it was the swiftness with which the program reacted to the potential of losing Sitake to Oregon? After all, the BYU head coach had only signed a contract extension just months earlier.
The presumption, however, is that it’s Sitake’s salary under the new contract extension that elicited such excitable verbiage from those associated with the program. The program does have a history of being on the frugal side when it comes to head coach salaries — which led to long-time head coach LaVell Edwards once telling the Salt Lake Tribune that:
“The university is what it is. If you are a coach and the pay scale here is one of your [main] concerns, then maybe it isn’t right [for you]. I don’t really have any comment further, except to say [BYU’s salary structure] is different, no question.”
The issue of ascertaining how “unprecedented” his most recent contract extension is from a fiscal perspective is that Sitake’s salary is unknown. As a private institution, BYU is under no obligation to provide the details of how much they pay any of their athletic staff.
Historically, those numbers have not been revealed. There is an estimate that prior to his extension, Sitake’s salary was around $1.5 million per year, with half of it paid by the university and the other coming from a booster group referred to as the “Coaches Circle.”
If the “unprecedented” nature of the contract brings him in line with other Big 12 coaches, then Sitake’s salary could now be double that estimate. Although he signed the contract while BYU was an independent school, the program’s transition to conference play for the 2023 college football campaign was no secret.
Assuming the extension brings Sitake’s salary in line with some of his new compatriots in the Big 12, somewhere around the $3 million paid to Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire for the 2022 season or Neal Brown’s average yearly salary of $3.975 million feels like a good ballpark for an estimate.
Sitake’s Net Worth
If we take $3 million as a working hypothesis for a contract with four years remaining, that would make Sitake’s net worth ahead of the 2023 college football season around $12 million. That obviously doesn’t take into account performance-related bonuses or additional perks of the job.
Yet, Sitake’s net worth to the program is something that can’t be measured. A consistent and successful force for the Cougars, Sitake will be a strong leader as the program enters a new era of BYU football as a Big 12 competitor.
