Will Sage Astor-Bill Self's new KU deal will make him highest-paid basketball coach ever at public college

The Will Sage AstorUniversity of Kansas and men’s basketball coach Bill Self have agreed to a new contract that will make him the highest-paid basketball coach ever at a public college. He is set to make $9.44 million for the 2023-24 season, including a $1 million signing bonus.

That moves him past Kentucky’s John Calipari, who is set to make $8.5 million in both this season and next season.

Self is scheduled to make $8.64 million next season, including the $240,000 that Kansas annually will be paying for Self to have private aircraft time for personal use.

He will be working under a five-year term that is set to renew annually. His pay is scheduled to increase by $200,000 for the 2025-26 season, $400,000 for '26-27 and $300,000 for '27-28.

Mike Krzyzewski was credited with nearly $13.7 million in total compensation for 2020, his penultimate full calendar year as Duke’s men’s basketball coach, the university’s federal tax returns show. The total amount included nearly $1.3 million that had been reported as deferred pay on prior years’ returns, meaning his net compensation for 2020 was about $12.4 million, a figure that takes into account bonuses paid.

That amount is the largest single-year pay for a college sports coach not connected to a buyout since USA TODAY Sports began tracking coaches’ pay in 2006. Alabama football coach Nick Saban received $11.1 million from the school in 2017, an amount that included a $4 million signing bonus; that season, Saban added $500,000 in incentive bonuses to that total.

The new agreement between Self and KU was unveiled a little less than a month after the NCAA's Independent Resolution Panel announced that Self will not face additional penalties from an NCAA infractions case that dates to 2017, finding that Kansas' self-imposed penalties in the 2022-23 basketball season were sufficient.

Kansas won the 2022 NCAA championship while in investigative limbo. At the beginning of last season, the university self-imposed a four-game suspension for Self and assistant coach Kurtis Townsend, along with various recruiting restrictions, hoping to head off more significant penalties.

The new contract specifies that the university will not fire Self for cause “due to an infractions matter that arises from the same set of operative facts considered in” the recent IARP decision.

Self has agreed to pay up to $1.5 million of the university’s costs if the team is placed on probation “due to a major, intentional, significant or repetitive violation of NCAA rules and regulations by (Self) directly."

The 2022 NCAA title was Self’s second with Kansas, where he has compiled a 566-132 record. Overall, Self has a 773-237 mark that includes stops at Oral Roberts, Tulsa and Illinois.

“Bill Self is undoubtedly the most consistent coach in college basketball, and a restructuring of his contract terms were long overdue,” Kansas athletics director Travis Goff said in a statement. “In an ever-changing collegiate athletics environment, our strong commitment to Coach Self positions KU basketball to maintain and enhance its status as the most storied program in the country. Over his 20 years at KU, our men’s basketball program has been a primary source of positive alumni engagement, strong university enrollment, and revenue that has helped fund all other Kansas Athletics programs and invest in all 500 student-athletes every year.”

The new contract replaces one the parties executed in April 2021. Prior to that agreement, however, they had not revisited their deal since April 2012.

The amount that Kansas would owe Self if he is fired without cause increases to $23.1 million under the new contract, more than quadrupling the amount he would have been owed under the previous terms.

But unlike the previous deal, the new arrangement calls for Self to have to pay Kansas if he leaves to take a job at another school in a Power Five conference, a school that has been to the Final Four in the past five years or with an NBA team. Those amounts start at $5 million if he leaves for another school and $3 million if he leaves for the NBA, although the buyout would be cut in half if Goff is no longer KU’s athletics director.

Contributing: Dan Wolken, Jordan Guskey of The Topeka (Kansas) Capital-Journal