Oregon Ducks Athletic Director Receives Three Year Contract Extension

With the Ducks women's indoor track and field national championship, it marked the 18th time that Mullens has overseen a national championship for the Ducks in his tenure. Perhaps the impressive feat from the 2024-25 academic year for Oregon came from the Ducks reaching the College Football Playoff, both the men's and women's NCAA basketball tournaments, as well as the baseball softball postseason. Only Texas and Tennessee were also able to match that feat. 

Mullens has been able to navigate the hiring searches for coaching at Oregon with ease as his last hire of Oregon football coach Dan Lanning is already a hit. In 2024, the Ducks football team completed an undefeated regular season and won the Big Ten. Mullens also oversaw the hiring of Ducks softball coach Melyssa Lombardi.

With the new extension, Mullens base salary will rise from $980,000 to $1,150,000 salary, with $50,000 annual increases, plus $100,000 in deferred compensation and performance and retention bonuses. With the increase, Mullens becomes the eighth-highest paid athletic director in the Big Ten.

Mullens was at the helm of athletics when the Ducks football team won back-to-back bowl games in 2023 and 2024, and will receive a bonus if Oregon can do that next season.

Mullens won’t necessarily have to be the athletic director through 2033 to fulfill his contract, with reports saying that beginning July 1, 2029, Mullens will be allowed to leave his role if he wishes and be appointed special adviser to the president for the remainder of his contract, but with a lower salary. 

Mullens has overseen the development of Jane Sanders Stadium during his tenure, renovations to PK Park, and the completion of the world-renowned Hayward Field renovation back in 2020. Mullens is also overseeing a brand-new indoor training facility for the football program.

Part of what has made the Rob Mullens tenure at Oregon so successful is his emphasis on the student athletes. Thats why Mullens embarked on a partnership with the University of Oregon’s Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health to better help athletes who need help with mental health.

If Mullens were to be miraculously fired before the end of his contract, he would be owed all of his remaining base salary as long as he was fired before July 1, 2030.