Kevin Sumlin’s contract details released

Former Texas A&M and Houston head coach Kevin Sumlin agreed to be the Arizona Wildcats’ next coach on Sunday afternoon, and now we know what the contract details are.

Ahead of Tuesday’s introductory press conference, UA released the details.

As previously reported, the length is five years (typical for any college football coach), and the total value of the contract is $14.5 million.

Sumlin will receive two million dollars in each of his first two years, and 3.5 million in the each of the final three seasons. The deal is still pending approval by the Arizona Board of Regents.

It should also be noted that Sumlin will be receiving a $10 million buyout from Texas A&M.

As far as a potential buyout goes, there are provisions in place if the contract is terminated without cause, and they “include a mitigation requirement”.

“That was very apparent to me early on that we needed to do that,” Arizona director of athletics Dave Heeke said about putting that clause in. “We wanted to make sure that was included.”

It will also be the standard moving forward.

The assistant coaches salary pool will be growing this year as well.

“We’ve talked about that, and we’ve committed additional dollars to our salary pool,” he said in a Q&A after the press conference. “We want to be able to attract and retain coaches. I don’t think it’s been a problem in the past at all, contrary to popular conversation or belief. But I think it’s important. We want to get coaches that Kevin thinks will help lead our program forward and we’re ready to invest in that.”

This is a very low risk/high reward deal for Arizona. There are concerns out there that Sumlin would leave quickly if he has early success in Tucson. Well, UA is only on the hook for two million for each of those first two years now.