Sooners give Stoops seven-year, $34.5M extension

TULSA, Okla. -- Two days after winning one of the college football season's early marquee games, Bob Stoops was rewarded Monday with a new contract extension that could keep him as the coach of top-ranked Oklahoma through 2018 and pay him $34.5 million over the next seven years.

A win over No. 5 Florida State on Saturday puts Stoops' record at 131-31 at Oklahoma. (US Presswire)

"I don't think I need to add anything to the proof that he gave to the national viewing audience that there's no better football coach in the country than he is," university president David Boren said before recommending approval of Stoops' new contract.

The deal calls for Stoops' paydays to grow over the years, topping out at $5.15 million in salary and bonuses over the final three years. He was already one of the highest-paid coaches in the country, making $30 million over the course of a previous seven-year deal approved in 2009.

The extension made no changes to his salary for this year, when he is set to make $4.875 million, including an $800,000 bonus he received on Jan. 1.

"In my opinion, he does not have a peer in college coaching either in terms of his strategic abilities as a coach, but also in terms of his example as a role model," Boren told the Associated Press. "The quality of the players on our team as people is just extraordinary. They are caring people, they set very high standards for themselves, they are very modest and generous to others and that doesn't happen unless you have a coach who sets a very powerful example for them."

Stoops' Sooners won 23-13 at fifth-ranked Florida State on Saturday night, moving his record 100 games over .500 at 131-31.

Regents also gave athletic director Joe Castiglione a three-year contract extension through June 2017, including an annual raise of $165,000 and an annual bonus of $110,000 each Oct. 1 starting in 2013. His total salary this year will be $915,000 without bonuses.

"We have excellent leadership in Joe Castiglione. He has brought to the university I think across the board the strongest group of coaches that we've ever had," Boren said.

"I feel really blessed," he added. "I just would put our total athletics program up against any in the United States, and I don't think anybody exceeds our standards."