On the morning of March 3, it was announced that Jay Norvell, Nevada football’s head coach, inked a new five-year deal to remain with the Wolf Pack for the foreseeable future. This new contract signs Norvell as the Pack’s leader through Jan. 31, 2025.

The contract—25 pages in length—details a wide array of guarantees and clauses for the head coach. The Nevada Sagebrush requested a copy of the contract shortly after the news broke of the deal. The deal also outlines how Norvell will be evaluated for his position. 40 percent will be based on competitiveness, 40 percent on academics and rule compliance, 10 percent on institutional goals, including diversity and citizenship and the final 10 percent will come from program administration. 

For starters, Norvell’s salary is broken up into two main categories: base salary, and media and public appearances. Norvell earns $300,000 as his base salary and $325,000 as his media and public appearance pay. He earns all $625,000 as long as he keeps his media and public guarantee. Per season, Norvell is required to appear 12 times on the radio and television/internet and 20 times for public/donor appearances. 

According to the contract, public appearances are defined as “appearances before civic, faculty, student, alumni, booster or other like groups, as may be reasonably determined by the Athletic Director.”

Norvell’s $625,000 salary would put him at the bottom of the Mountain West coaching salary rankings per Chris Murray of Nevada Sports Net. On average, coaches in the Mountain West earn $1.14 million per year to lead their respective programs. 

Also included in the compensation portion of Norvell’s new deal are a few interesting details related to bonuses and stipends.

As part of a monthly stipend, Norvell receives $1,000 a month for an automobile stipend. 

Norvell is given a skybox that can hold 12 people at Nevada’s home football games. He also receives four tickets to every other Wolf Pack sport’s home games.

The head coach also receives a membership to a local country club as part of the new contract.

There is also a long list of bonuses that Norvell can achieve for hitting certain criteria throughout the season. If the team wins seven or eight regular-season games, Norvell gets a bonus of $25,000. If he leads the team to nine regular-season wins, he receives a bonus of $50,000. For beating a power-5 opponent, Norvell will receive a bonus of $25,000.

For defeating UNLV, Nevada’s main rival, Norvell gets a bonus of $25,000. Norvell hasn’t beaten UNLV since his first season with the Wolf Pack, in 2017. 

The head coach is also offered enticing incentives if he leads the Pack to the Mountain West Championships. If Nevada wins the MWC West division, Norvell receives a bonus of $50,000 and a $100,000 bonus if he leads the team to a victory in the MWC Championship.

Although these are some of the bonuses Novell is more likely to obtain, they aren’t the only ones. His contract also outlines bonuses if he leads the team to post-season play, something he’s done consecutively for the past two years.

An appearance in a non-New Year’s bowl game results in a $15,000 bonus for the coach. The payday increases to $25,000 if he wins the bowl game. If Nevada makes it to one of the six New Year’s bowl games, Norvell will earn himself a $150,000 bonus. The payout increases to $200,000 if leads the Wolf Pack to victory in the match.

The largest potential bonus for Norvell comes if he leads the Pack to the College Football Playoffs. If Nevada makes it to the semi-finals of the playoffs, Novell earns a bonus of $250,000 or $500,000 if they make it to the championship match. 

The last of the bonuses related to the field performance is connected to the Coach of the Year awards. For winning the MWC Coach or Co-Coach of the Year award, Norvell earns $25,000. For receiving the National Coach or Co-Coach of the Year, Norvell will be paid $50,000. 

All of these bonuses are dependent on Nevada hitting a single-season APR of 940 in the following academic year. Additionally, Norvell’s total bonuses can not exceed $875,000 per year per the contract.

Also outlined in the contract are a few academic dependent bonuses for the head coach.

If the program has a team APR of 985 from the previous two semesters, Norvell earns a $10,000 bonus. If the team’s GPA in the same time frame is a 2.75 or higher, Norvell earns an additional $25,000. 

In the case of Norvell wanting to leave Nevada for another program, Norvell would have to pay the program his remaining contract within 60 days of leaving Nevada. Also, if Norvell is terminated prematurely without cause from his contract, Nevada would owe Norvell the remainder of his deal.

Ryan Freeberg can be reached at rfreeberg@sagebrush.unr.edu or on Twitter @SagebrushSports.