What is Oklahoma State paying new wrestling coach David Taylor? Contract details released.
Scott WrightThe Oklahoman
STILLWATER — Oklahoma State’s David Taylor is set to be the first college wrestling coach to earn $1 million per year.
The six-year contract will pay Taylor $7.45 million in all, opening with a $1 million annual base salary in his first year, plus $30,000 raises each year, according to the contract obtained by The Oklahoman.
The contract details, initially reported by Pistols Firing, also call for a one-time payment of $1 million.
The contract includes bonuses, such as $125,000 for winning an NCAA championship and $10,000 for each individual champion, while also allowing Taylor to choose for his performance incentives to be reallocated to the bonus fund for his assistants.
Taylor agreed to become Oklahoma State’s head coach in May, a few weeks after the legendary John Smith announced his retirement after 33 years.
Smith, who made $500,000 in his final season as coach, led OSU to five national championships and 490 dual victories.
Taylor, like Smith was in 1992, is a first-year coach fresh off a competitive career in which he was viewed as the greatest American wrestler of his era.
He was a four-time finalist and two-time winner at the NCAA Championships during his career at Penn State, then went on to win three gold medals at the World Championships and gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
He concluded his competitive career in April when he did not make the Olympic team at the 2024 U.S. team trials.
The hire shook the college wrestling world, considering Taylor’s status in the sport.
And the contract is a sign of not only Weiberg’s belief in Taylor, but also the magnitude of luring such a prominent wrestler into his first coaching job.
“I felt a huge sense of responsibility with this decision,” OSU athletic director Chad Weiberg said in May when Taylor was announced as head coach. “This job has not been open in over three decades and only eight times in its history. So I knew we needed to go through the process about doing the due diligence it deserved.
“We just had to make sure we did everything we could to find the next great leader, so we began the process that led us here.”
