Mike Elko's Texas A&M Salary, Contract Incentives, Bonuses Revealed

Texas A&M hired former Duke head coach Mike Elko as its Jimbo Fisher replacement on Monday, and he'll be compensated quite handsomely if he can turn the Aggies into a national powerhouse.

Alongside a $7 million base salary over the six years of his contract, he'll also receive major bonuses for making the College Football Playoff ($1 million), winning a conference title and/or reaching the CFP quarterfinals ($1.5 million), reaching the CFP semifinals ($2 million), reaching the CFP title game ($2.5 million) or winning a national championship ($3.5 million).

Additionally, hitting any of those milestones would result in another year being added to his contract.

Elko will additionally receive a $100,000 bonus for reaching the SEC Championship Game, a $50,000 bonus for being named SEC Coach of the Year, a $100,000 bonus for being named the National Coach of the Year and a $50,000 bonus for having a multi-year APR of 960 or higher.

The 46-year-old spent the past two seasons as the head coach at Duke, leading the Blue Devils to a 16-9 record and bowl eligibility in both seasons. He's a familiar face in college station, having served as the Aggies' defensive coordinator and safeties coach from 2018-21.

Other stops as a defensive coordinator included Hofstra (2006-08), Bowling Green (2009-13), Wake Forest (2014-16) and Notre Dame (2017).

"Coach Mike Elko is one of the best leaders and coaches in college football and has had high-level success at each stop of his career," Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork said in a statement Monday. "He is known amongst coaching circles as one of the best defensive minds in the country and has shown his ability to lead and turn around a program as a Power 5 head coach."

The Fisher era was disastrous for Texas A&M, as he went just 46-26 in parts of six seasons, never won a conference title or reached the College Football Playoff, failed to post double-digit wins in a season and reportedly cost the school somewhere in the vicinity of $76 million in a buyout after his firing.

The Aggies couldn't afford to get his replacement wrong, and they certainly couldn't afford to tether themselves to another historically huge contract.

"Coach Elko has a vision for Aggie football, and a specific plan for innovation and greatness which is exactly what our program needs right now to compete in the modern era of college athletics," Bjork said.

If that proves to be true, he'll also have some very lucrative bonuses heading his way.