University of Oklahoma Athletics
Regents Approve Contract Packages
June 24, 2009 | Athletics
June 24, 2009
ARDMORE, Okla. (AP) -- Oklahoma just made it a lot harder for football coach Bob Stoops and basketball coach Jeff Capel to leave.
University regents on Wednesday approved bonus-laden contracts that would keep both coaches in charge of the Sooners for seven more seasons, adding two years to each deal.
Stoops' new package would pay him more than $30 million through the end of 2015. He would earn a total of $3.675 million next season, including an annual "stay" bonus of $700,000. He will get the bonus this October, but in July in subsequent years.
"This university is so fortunate to have a terrific leader, an outstanding football coach, a person with impeccable character like coach Stoops with a proven record of success," athletic director Joe Castiglione said.
Stoops, who has led the Sooners to seven BCS bowl games, received a $3 million bonus in January for staying at Oklahoma for 10 seasons. He got a $30,000 bump in his base salary to $250,000 per year and a $20,000 boost to his personal services deal to $2.725 million annually.
The main additions were a bonus of $800,000 if Stoops is still employed by Oklahoma on Jan. 1, 2011, in addition to the yearly $700,000 bonus.
"We're just annualizing what coach Stoops received in the stay bonus by waiting multiple years.We annualized that amount so it triggers at a certain time of year following what we would call the hiring periods, not just collegiate hiring, but the NFL hiring periods," Castiglione said.
Stoops' performance incentives for such achievements as winning a Big 12 title or playing in a BCS bowl game were also increased by 10 percent and he was given access to 10 additional hours for a total of 45 per year on a private airplane.
With national player of the year and expected No. 1 NBA draft pick Blake Griffin on his roster, Capel led the Sooners within a win of the Final Four this season.
Capel will receive $13.28 million for staying at Oklahoma through June 2016, beginning with a $1.5 million salary next season-a $450,000 increase over last season. His new contract includes a $1.1 million bonus for staying through June 30, 2014, and another $400,000 if he's at Oklahoma two years after that.
"When those rumors start floating and people start questioning and speculating what might happen or whether or not a person is interested ... they always ask what are we going to do? I usually say, 'Well, have you ever looked at what we have already done?'" Castiglione said.
Castiglione compared Capel to women's basketball coach Sherri Coale, saying that both were building programs with outstanding recruiting skills and continuity on their staffs.
"He wants to be part of an elite program and we want to have an elite program without being elitist," Castiglione said. "We're very grateful that he expressed his passion to stay and build this program and create it as a destination job."
Coale, whose contract already was set to run through 2017 and include a stay bonus of $200,000 in June 2011, got a $60,000 raise for next year.
Among other coaches' contracts:
Baseball coach Sunny Golloway's contract was extended by three years until 2013. He'll be paid a total of $201,000 annually;
Stoops' assistants got varying raises, with offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson getting the biggest bump of $100,000 to make his total package worth $385,000 next year. Defensive coordinator Brent Venables got a $50,000 raise and will make $$395,000 next season while Josh Heupel, the position coach for Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Sam Bradford, got a $44,000 raise to $200,000 for next season.
Each of Capel's three assistants got a $12,000 raise;
Newly hired men's golf coach Ryan Hybl and men's tennis coach John Roddick received four-year contracts worth about $100,000 annually.
