Back in late December, amid baseless speculation that Mack Brown would be gently nudged into retirement, Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds responded to the rumors by stating that the school was looking into a revamped contract for the long-time coach.
Less than a month later, that contract discussion is getting set to commence in earnest.
The school’s Board of Regents will hold a meeting via a conference call Thursday, and there’s only one item on the agenda -- Brown’s contract. The board’s focus is expected to be on the length of the deal; the Austin American-Statesman is reporting that the new deal will extend four years beyond its current end date.
Brown’s current deal, which was agreed upon in December of 2009 and runs through the 2016 season, paid him $5.2 million in 2011. That figure made him the highest-paid Div. 1-A head coach in the country last season.
The American-Statesman reports that there will be no raise involved in the revamped deal, although Brown’s expected to receive a $100,000 annual raise as called for in the old deal.
The 60-year-old Brown will be entering his 15th season with the Longhorns this year. A 13-win season in 2009 -- UT’s ninth straight 10-win-plus season -- was followed by two seasons in which the Longhorns won a combined 13 games.