Written by Steve Jones at Courier Journal.com
Saying he wants to finish his career at the University of Louisville, football coach Bobby Petrino has received a new seven-year contract from the Cardinals worth up to $31.675 million.
The new deal, announced Thursday by the school, would raise Petrino’s base pay from $3 million to $3.875 million in 2016, beginning July 1, with $50,000 increases every year, starting July 1, 2017 and going through June 30, 2023. Petrino will continue to earn an additional $500,000 each year if the Cardinals achieve a score of at least 935 on the Academic Progress Rating, meaning he could earn as much as $4.375 million this year.
In the final year of the deal, Petrino will make $4.175 million in base pay and potentially $4.675 million with the APR bonus. If he gets the APR bonus every year, Petrino’s compensation would average $4.525 million per season.
The addendum on Petrino’s deal replaces and adds two years to the salary terms of the original seven-year contract he signed when he was rehired as coach in 2014.
After repeatedly being mentioned as a candidate for other jobs during his first tenure at Louisville from 2003-07, Petrino said Thursday that the new contract is evidence that “this is where I want to be, this is the place I want to finish my career.”
“I think everybody sees that now,” he said. “Someone said, ‘When this (new contract) runs out, you’re going to be 62. What are you going to do then?’ I hope I get another (extension).”
The base pay of $3.875 million for 2016 would have been higher than all but 19 FBS head coaches’ salaries in 2015, according to a USA TODAY database. Petrino’s potential pay with APR-bonus of $4.375 million this year would be more than all but eight coaches’ 2015 base salaries.
Among Atlantic Coast Conference coaches at public universities, Petrino’s base pay would be less than only Florida State’s Jimbo Fisher, who earned $5.15 million in base pay in 2015, and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney, who just received a new six-year, $31.75 million contract that will pay him $4.8 million in 2016.
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