Arizona State’s ‘New Leadership Model’ is keeping the leader around for a little bit longer it seems.
The Arizona Republic reports that the school has given athletic director Ray Anderson a three-year contract extension that will keep in Tempe through September 2022. The deal, which includes a bump in base salary from $642,000 to $800,000, was actually approved last year and took effect in July of 2017.
The 64-year-old has been in charge at ASU since 2014 and spent years in the NFL in both the league office and as a former agent before that. One of his clients back in the day just so happens to be Herm Edwards, who was controversially hired to lead the football program in December after Todd Graham was fired as head coach following the Sun Devils’ regular season finale against rival Arizona.
The Republic notes that Anderson has already hired a whopping 17 head coaches so far in his tenure, with the high-profile additions of Edwards and men’s basketball coach Bobby Hurley being some of the most notable.
Some of the clauses obtained by the paper in the new deal are also quite interesting, including a $2 million retention bonus if Anderson remains AD through the end of the contract and up to $1 million in buyout money should he look to terminate the deal.