(Nelson Chenault-US PRESSWIRE)
Les Miles plans to remain LSU head coach, agreeing to the terms of a new contract that will replace the contract extension he signed in August 2011.
Arkansas offered Miles a five-year contract reportedly worth $27.5 million late Tuesday, but LSU athletic director Joe Alleva acted quickly to get Miles a new contract with the Tigers. Miles signed a new seven-year deal with LSU, according ESPN.com., which will take him through 2019. It amounts to a two-year extension. He is likely to receive a “substantial” bump in annual salary.
Miles, who has an 85-20 record in eight seasons at the Baton Rouge, La., school, is LSU’s second-winningest coach. Before Wednesday’s agreement, Miles’ contract paid him a base salary of $3.751 million, plus postseason and academic bonuses. That deal was scheduled to expire in 2017.
According to published salary figures, only Texas coach Mack Brown ($5.193 million), Nick Saban at Alabama ($4.833 million) and Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops ($4.085 million) had higher annual compensation than Miles among active college football coaches.
–Presidents from the Atlantic Coast Conference unanimously voted to add the University of Louisville for all sports starting in 2014.
Louisville is the No. 1 college basketball television market in the country and operates with an annual athletic budget that is more than $25 million greater than Maryland’s last reported fiscal athletic expenditures of $57.35 million. Louisville receives only $
The Cardinals also have an improved product on the football field under coach Charlie Strong, who has a 23-14 record in two seasons before Louisville plays for a BCS bid at Rutgers on Thursday night. Maryland is 15 games under .500 in the past four seasons.
— Middle Tennessee State and Florida Atlantic will be joining Conference USA as a replacement for Tulane and East Carolina, according to multiple media reports.
The addition of Middle Tennessee and Florida Atlantic would boost C-USA membership back to 14.
Conference USA has not yet confirmed the additions, but MTSU’s announcement is expected to come Thursday. It’s uncertain when an announcement on Florida Atlantic’s move will come.
Both schools are members of the Sun Belt Conference and are expected to join Conference USA in 2013.
—The Cleveland Browns denied a report that ESPN analyst Jon Gruden has an offer to become head coach at Tennessee that includes an ownership stake in the Browns.
WREG in Memphis, Tenn., reported Tuesday that Gruden has a contract offer in hand from Tennessee and part of the deal would give Gruden a stake in the NFL team. New Browns owner Jimmy Haslam is a Knoxville, Tenn., native, a Tennessee graduate and a school booster.
“Jimmy Haslam has no involvement in the Univeristy of Tennessee head coaching search, and the report that Jon Gruden would potentially have an ownership stake in the Browns is completely erroneous,” Browns vice president of media relations Neil Gulkis said Wednesday.
