Horizon League Men’s Basketball Coach Salaries
Head coach pay at the 12 Horizon League men’s basketball programs for 2026–27. Northern Illinois joined the league from the MAC on July 1, 2026. Three figures come from news reports or a contract quoted by a student newspaper; the rest are unconfirmed, and several recent contract extensions came with no pay disclosed. Each figure is labeled with how well it is confirmed. Women’s programs: Horizon League women’s basketball coach salaries.
Key numbers
- Median head coach pay: about $334,000 across the ten programs with a figure. Figures run from $250,000 (Green Bay, unconfirmed) to $574,000 (Northern Kentucky).
- Northern Kentucky’s Darrin Horn is the highest paid at $574,000 in 2026–27, a scheduled figure: his contract paid $544,000 in 2023–24 and rises $10,000 a year, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader, which obtained the contract under open-records law.
- Only three salaries have any documentation: Horn, Milwaukee’s Bart Lundy ($430,000, reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) and Wright State’s Clint Sargent ($357,200 base, from a contract the Wright State Guardian obtained).
- Five coaches signed extensions since April 2025 (Robert Morris, Youngstown State, Detroit Mercy, Green Bay and Wright State). We found no reported pay for any of those extensions.
- We found one men’s head coach hired this offseason: Matt Majkrzak at Northern Illinois, from Division II Northern Michigan (March 2026).
Head coach pay by school
| School | Head coach | Pay | Basis | Source | Contract / notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northern Kentucky | Darrin Horn | $574,000 | Base, 2026–27 (scheduled) | News report | Contract runs through June 2027 with an automatic one-year extension if NKU finishes in the top half of the league. $544,000 in 2023–24, plus $10,000 a year |
| Milwaukee | Bart Lundy | $430,000 | Base | News report | Five-year extension, up from $350,000, with lump-sum incentives for team and individual achievements |
| Robert Morris (private) | Andy Toole | $404,741 | Unconfirmed | Unconfirmed | Multi-year extension agreed April 2025; terms not disclosed. Private school does not publish pay |
| Wright State | Clint Sargent | $357,200 | Base | News report (contract) | Student newspaper quoted the contract (April 2026): NCAA Tournament bonus of $30,000 plus $10,000 per win, and academic bonuses. The Dayton Daily News reported $381,200 for later years plus a $35,000 retention bonus. Extension through 2031 announced August 2026; pay not reported |
| Cleveland State | Rob Summers | $338,000 | First-year pay | Unconfirmed | Hired April 2025 on a five-year deal; the figure comes from one news aggregator |
| Northern Illinois | Matt Majkrzak | $330,000 | Reported | Unconfirmed | Hired March 2026 to replace Rashon Burno. The figure appears only on Wikipedia-derived pages. First season in the Horizon League |
| Purdue Fort Wayne | Jon Coffman | $285,000 | Unconfirmed | Unconfirmed | Head coach since 2014. Last extension we found was August 2022; terms not reported |
| Youngstown State | Ethan Faulkner | $280,500 | Unconfirmed | Unconfirmed | Received a raise and extension in June 2025 (one report says through 2029–30, another says one year); the new amount was not reported |
| IU Indianapolis | Ben Howlett | $265,000 | Unconfirmed | Unconfirmed | Hired May 2025 from Division II West Liberty; no pay or contract length reported |
| Green Bay | Doug Gottlieb | $250,000 | Unconfirmed, 2025–26 | Unconfirmed | Extended through 2030–31 in June 2026; the school did not release financial terms, so pay may have changed |
| Detroit Mercy (private) | Mark Montgomery | Not disclosed | — | — | Extended through 2030–31 on May 6, 2026. He earned $424,200 in his last year at Michigan State (2023–24) |
| Oakland | Greg Kampe | Not disclosed | — | — | Longest-tenured active Division I head coach (731–571). We found no recent pay figure |
Sorted by pay. Source: “News report” means a news outlet reported the figure from documents or interviews; “Unconfirmed” means we found no document or report behind it, and the figure comes from a compiled conference file. Unconfirmed figures are 2025–26 amounts unless noted.
What the numbers show
- Horn’s pay is about a third above the next-highest documented figure. His $574,000 compares with Lundy’s $430,000. Horn’s contract was reported as making him the highest-paid coach in the league when it was signed in 2023.
- Bonuses are small next to base pay in the one contract we can see. Sargent’s NCAA Tournament bonus is $30,000 for making the field, about 8% of his base.
- Extensions are being signed without pay disclosure. Green Bay said it would not release terms of Gottlieb’s June 2026 deal, and none of the five recent extensions came with a reported figure, so the numbers above may understate current pay.
- Federal data puts the new member at the top. Averaged across all men’s teams (which includes football for NIU), Northern Illinois ($241,937) and Robert Morris ($192,026) pay head coaches the most; Purdue Fort Wayne ($91,450) pays the least. See the table below.
Assistant coach pay
We did not find a payroll record, contract or news report for any Horizon League men’s assistant coach. A compiled file lists assistants and operations staff at roughly $48,000 to $135,000, but we could not confirm any of it, so no assistant figures are published here. Northern Kentucky promoted two assistants to associate head coach in May 2026 without announcing pay.
School-wide averages (federal data)
Every college that offers athletics reports average coach pay to the U.S. Department of Education. These are averages per full-time coach across all men’s teams at each school (2024–25 reporting year), not basketball only and not individual salaries.
| School | Average head coach, men’s teams | Average assistant coach, men’s teams |
|---|---|---|
| Northern Illinois | $241,937 | $100,613 |
| Robert Morris (private) | $192,026 | $59,652 |
| Youngstown State | $173,812 | $59,179 |
| Milwaukee | $167,789 | $58,208 |
| Detroit Mercy (private) | $162,779 | $70,095 |
| Oakland | $143,351 | $75,829 |
| Wright State | $142,630 | $84,127 |
| Northern Kentucky | $139,573 | $49,493 |
| Cleveland State | $121,072 | $57,446 |
| Green Bay | $113,464 | $70,455 |
| IU Indianapolis | $104,711 | $56,192 |
| Purdue Fort Wayne | $91,450 | $62,845 |
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act data, 2024–25 (ope.ed.gov/athletics).
Data notes
- Ten of the 12 member schools are public, so contracts are public records, but most are not posted online and the state payroll databases could not be searched for this report. Robert Morris and Detroit Mercy are private and do not publish pay.
- Most figures here are unconfirmed amounts from a compiled conference file. Where a news report or contract contradicted that file, we used the report; Wright State’s and Northern Kentucky’s figures were both corrected this way.
- The league has 12 members for 2026–27: Cleveland State, Detroit Mercy, Green Bay, IU Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Northern Illinois, Northern Kentucky, Oakland, Purdue Fort Wayne, Robert Morris, Wright State and Youngstown State.
Photo: Cleveland State men’s basketball. k_e_lewis, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; cropped.
Related
- Horizon League women’s basketball coach salaries
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- WIAC (Division III) men’s · WIAC (Division III) women’s
- College basketball coach salaries by conference
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