As the Cincinnati Bearcats transition from a ceiling-shattering Group of Five powerhouse to the Big 12 Conference, they do so with a new head coach in former Appalachian State and Louisville leader Scott Satterfield. What is Satterfield’s salary, contract, and net worth for the 2023 college football season and beyond?
Scott Satterfield’s Salary and Contract in 2023
In December 2022, Cincinnati announced the appointment of their replacement for long-time head coach Luke Fickell to much fanfare from the program. The Bearcats secured Satterfield as the 43rd head coach in school history, with a six-year contract that aims to keep him at the program through the 2028 college football season.
In 2023, Satterfield will earn a salary of $3.5 million. Like many college football head coach contracts, the new head of the Cincinnati coaching staff has his total salary broken down into base salary and supplemental compensation.
Satterfield’s base salary remains at $250,000 for the life of his contract, while his supplemental income starts at $3.25 million for the 2023 campaign. Each season, he receives an incremental increase of $100,000 to his supplemental income.
These increases mean that Satterfield’s salary will be $4 million in the final year of his current contract. Although his salary falls short of the amount paid to his predecessor, it’s an increase of approximately $250,000 from his salary at Louisville. The new Cardinals head coach had two years on that contract and had reportedly been denied a contract extension.
Satterfield arrives in Cincinnati having seen success at Appalachian State and Louisville, where he tallied a 76-48 record in 10 years across the two programs. Meanwhile, he holds a 4-1 bowl game record, and his coaching résumé contains three conference titles from his time in Boone with the Mountaineers.
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Furthermore, Satterfield was named conference coach of the year in consecutive seasons from 2018 to 2019. In 2018, he won the Sun Belt Coach of the Year with Appalachian State before flipping the Cardinals from a 2-10 team to an 8-5 record as the ACC Coach of the Year in 2019.
Understandably, Cincinnati athletic director John Cunningham was excited to announce Satterfield as the new Bearcats head coach.
“Scott Satterfield is a proven winner, a relentless competitor and a culture builder,” Cunningham enthused in the official announcement of the hire. “He’s an innovative offensive mind and a leader who develops men on and off the field. He’s the perfect fit to grow this program and lead us into the Big 12 next season and beyond.”
If Satterfield brings significant success to Cincinnati at the Power Five level, he might find himself a hot property in the college football head coach market. However, the buyout structure of his contract means that he’d be an expensive choice in the next two seasons.
If Satterfield wants to terminate his contract at any point before December 31, 2024, he—or his potential new employer—would have to pay Cincinnati $8 million. That number halves in the following year, eventually dwindling down to $1 million in the final year of his current contract.
Satterfield’s Net Worth
Under his contract as the Cincinnati head coach, Satterfield has a net worth of $22.5 million. Over the term of his six-year deal, he will average $3.75 million per year. However, his salary doesn’t include any performance-related bonuses, both on and off the field.
Satterfield can earn up to $1 million in bonuses during the 2023 college football season. The full bonuses potentially acquirable are as follows:
- $75,000 for finishing atop the Big 12 regular season.
- $75,000 for winning the Big 12 Championship Game.
- $250,000 for reaching a New Year’s Six bowl OR
- $250,000 for an appearance in the College Football Playoffs
- $500,000 for winning the College Football National Championship
- $75,000 for any non-New Year’s Six bowl appearance
- $50,000 for winning National Coach of the Year
- $25,000 for winning Big 12 Coach of the Year
Additionally, Satterfield’s contract offers a $25,000 bonus if the program has a multi-year NCAA Academic Progress Rate (APR) of 985 or higher. Cincinnati had a 994 APR in the most recently announced NCAA rates, the highest of any program that participated in the AAC during the previous season.
