What is a playing and coaching resume of 15 Final Fours, six national championships, four state championships and 30.2 wins per season for 44 years as a college head and assistant coach as well as a college and high school player worth at the negotiation table?
Apparently, an eight-year, $23.6 million contract not including a laundry list of easily obtainable incentives.
That what new LSU women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey will receive if she stays the length of her contract that ends June 30, 2029.
LSU released Mulkey’s contract term sheet Wednesday after she was announced as the Tigers’ new head coach Monday.
It is the longest single contract in years ever for an LSU coach and the second largest amount ever for a coach in any LSU sports behind Ed Orgeron’s current 6-year, 42-million deal.
Mulkey, a native of Tickfaw, La. who will turn 59 in May, coached 21 seasons at Baylor where her teams won three national championships.
She’s replacing Nikki Fargas, who resigned last Friday after 10 years as LSU’s coach. Fargas was making just more than $700,000 annually compared to the $2.85 million Mulkey will earn in her first 14 months starting now through June 30, 2022.
Mulkey’s contract includes an annual base salary of $400,000, an annual $80,000 personal travel allowance, an annual $60,000 sponsor-related compensation and supplemental compensation starting at $2,045,000 in her first year and increasing annually the length of her contract.
The contract length makes Mulkey, who was an assistant at Louisiana Tech for 15 seasons, fully vested in the Louisiana state employee pension system.
Back in 2000, then-new Louisiana Tech president Dan Reneau wanted to hire then-Tech associate head coach Mulkey to replace head coach Leon Barmore who was set to retire. Reneau offered Mulkey a four-year deal but she wanted a five-year contract to give her the required 20 years as a state employee to become fully vested in the pension system.
Reneau refused to make the deal and Mulkey walked out the door and accepted an offer to become Baylor’s head coach.
Nikki Fargas took a team that had 4 final 4’s the previous 10 years and turned it into a team that only got in the tournament in “good years”, averaging just over 17 wins per year over the past 10 years. Kim Mulkey took a team that had never even made the tournament and turned it into a power house with 3 national championships and over 30 wins per year. Should expect salary to reflect performance.