Oklahoma's Brent Venables takes $1 million pay cut for 2025 season, follows trend of coaches under pressure

Oklahoma's head football coach, Brent Venables, has agreed to take a $1 million pay cut for the 2025 season. This move follows a growing trend among college football coaches who are under pressure to reduce their salaries or find other ways to contribute to their schools' financial well-being. Venables, who is in the third year of his six-year, $43.5 million contract, will now earn $6.5 million in 2025, down from the originally agreed-upon $7.5 million. This decision comes as a response to the financial challenges facing many universities, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The article notes that Venables is not the only high-profile coach to make such a sacrifice, with others, including Clemson's Dabo Swinney and Alabama's Nick Saban, also taking pay cuts or deferring portions of their salaries in recent years. This trend reflects the broader financial pressures facing college athletics and the willingness of some coaches to share the burden.