Penn State extends James Franklin's contract
The football coach is 25-15 in three seasons since coming over from Vanderbilt. He led Penn State to the Big Ten title last season.
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Penn State football coach James Franklin has received an amended contract that covers the next six years.
His guaranteed compensation runs from $4.3 million in 2017 to $6.25 million in 2022; his base salary, which is complemented by income from media commitments and Nike, ranges from $1.6 million in 2017 to $3.55 million in 2022.
Franklin also can earn up to $1 million in incentives annually for accomplishments that, among other things, include winning a national championship [$800,000], tying for a division championship in the Big Ten but failing to qualify for the conference's title game because of tiebreakers [$150,000], and being named national coach of the year [$150,000].
What's more, the deal assures Franklin of a "retention bonus" worth $300,000 in each of the first four years, $500,000 in the fifth and $1 million in the sixth.
He also gets a $10,000 annual car allowance and up to 50 hours per year of private aircraft use for personal purposes.
The deal reportedly puts Franklin behind only Jim Harbaugh [Michigan], Nick Saban [Alabama] and Urban Meyer [Ohio State] in compensation among college football coaches.
[Heisman? Penn State's Saquon Barkley is too busy to think about that]
Franklin's original six-year deal, signed when he was hired away from Vanderbilt in 2014, was scheduled to pay him $4.6 million in 2017.
Penn State went 25-15 during Franklin's first three seasons as coach and won the school's first outright Big Ten title since 1994 in 2016, when it finished 11-3.
"James and his staff have done an exceptional job with our football student-athletes and in all aspects of the football program," Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour said in a prepared statement. "His values are Penn State's values and they resonate throughout every member of the organization and team he has built.
"James is a tremendous leader of young men, motivating them to extend their reach and impact far beyond what they might have thought possible on the field, in the classroom and community. We are excited about continuing to work together to strive to make a lifetime of impact, win championships and celebrate many successes on and off the field along the way."