With the Indiana football program on the rise in the Big Ten Conference, head coach Tom Allen was rewarded Friday with a seven-year contract extension worth $27.3 million.
The Hoosiers are 8-4 this season, the first time since 1993 Indiana has won eight games. In three full seasons as the Hoosiers head coach, plus a loss in the 2016 Foster Farms Bowl after taking over for Kevin Wilson, Allen is 18-19.
The program already has locked up its first winning season since going 7-6 in 2007. No Indiana head coach had won 18 games in his first three full seasons.
Indiana opened 3-1 this season, with their only loss to Ohio State on Sept. 14. They had a four-game winning streak in Big Ten play, defeating Rutgers, Maryland, Nebraska and Northwestern in succession to earn a No. 24 ranking. They defeated Purdue 44-41 on Saturday to end a two-game slide.
The contract for the Indiana native is fully guaranteed for the first three years, with half of the money guaranteed over the final four years. The program will also get an infusion of $500,000 into a salary pool for its assistant coaches and support staff.
“We have a tremendous group of players, I am proud to be their head coach, and I am 100 percent committed to their success on the field, in the classroom and in life,” Allen said in a statement. “It’s no secret Indiana University is a special place to me. I was born a Hoosier, raised a Hoosier and I am thrilled with the opportunity to remain a Hoosier for a long, long time to come.”
Indiana will learn its bowl game destination on Sunday. The Hoosiers have not won a bowl game since the 1991 Copper Bowl. The program’s last nine-win season came in 1967 when it advanced to the Rose Bowl.
