The University of Missouri has made its faith in football coach Barry Odom clear.
The UM System Board of Curators voted unanimously to give Odom a two-year contract extension through the 2024 season in a closed meeting Wednesday afternoon. Odom will receive a $600,000 raise, making his base salary $3.05 million.
The extension comes one day after Odom landed graduate transfer quarterback Kelly Bryant from Clemson. Odom led Missouri to a 8-4 regular season in 2018 and a berth in the Liberty Bowl in Memphis on Dec. 31. The third-year coach is 19-18 in his tenure at MU. That career mark is a winning record for the first time after the Tigers beat Arkansas to end the regular season in November.
“I’m excited and thankful to lead our program and student-athletes for years to come,” Odom said in a release. “We have a great staff in place who care about winning the right way and I’m appreciative of their efforts. I’m grateful for our players, and I’m honored to be their coach. I want to give them the very best every single day.”
Odom was previously the lowest-paid head football coach in the SEC. That title now belongs to Mississippi State coach Joe Moorhead. Odom also jumped Ole Miss’ Matt Luke and Vanderbilt’s Derek Mason to become the 11th highest-paid coach within the 14-team league, just behind LSU’s Ed Orgeron.
“Barry Odom has done an outstanding job of leading the Mizzou football program the last three seasons and I’m grateful that we were able to reward that success today,” MU athletic director Jim Sterk said in a statement handed out after the curators meeting. “He is building a championship culture within his program that fosters academic achievement, athletic success and accountability, and I am proud of what he has been able to accomplish during his first three seasons.”
The $3.05 million includes a deferred compensation of $150,000 per year that Odom won’t receive until whenever he leaves MU. That amount was already included in his old contract. That means that he will technically make less than $3.05 million at the end of each year, but it will total out to the announced number eventually when Odom is no longer with the program. He owes MU $2.35 million if he terminates the contract before Feb. 28, 2019.
Odom’s buyout deal will remain the same as it was in his old contract, at $450,000 for every year left on his contract. That means if he were fired today, Odom would receive $450,000 times the numbers of years left through 2024, making for a total of $3 million as of Wednesday.
The contract includes incentives on academic and athletic success, including predetermined raises for each win total starting at seven wins, for reaching a bowl game, and for appearing in various top-25 rankings.
The contract says Odom will receive a $25,000 bonus for winning seven games in a season; $50,000 for winning eight; $100,000 for nine; $150,000 for 10; $200,000 for 11; $250,000 for 12; $300,000 for 13; and $350,000 for winning 14 or 15. Odom would get a $100,000 bonus for winning the SEC East and going to the conference title game, and would earn $200,000 for winning an SEC championship.
Odom will earn a minimum of $50,000 when Missouri reaches a bowl game. If it goes to the Citrus Bowl or an SEC “Pool of Six” game – such as the Liberty Bowl – Odom will earn $100,000.
He also has a $5,000-per-week incentive for each time Missouri appears in the AP, Coaches or College Football Playoff rankings, which maxes out at $80,000. The contract lists a $50,000 incentive for finishing a season in the top 25, a $75,000 incentive for the top 10 and $100,000 for the top five.
The incentives on Odom’s contract, effective July 1, 2019, max out at a potential total as high as $1,855,000.
_Edited by Adam Cole | @acole@themaneater.com_
