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Arizona head coach Sean Miller to receive contract extension

Sean Miller

Sean Miller

AP

After winning 33 games and a Pac-12 regular season title in 2013-14, not to mention reaching the Elite Eight, Arizona head coach Sean Miller will be rewarded with a contract extension according to Doug Haller of AZCentral.com. According to the story the contact will run through May 31, 2019 with Miller’s base salary being bumped up to $1.6 million in 2018.

The contract will need to be approved by the state Board of Regents, with that vote scheduled to take place on June 6. Interestingly enough, there are also details of a benefactor putting together a package meant to help keep Miller (and athletic director Greg Byrne and head football coach Rich Rodriguez) in Tucson for the next eight years.

According to Arizona Board of Regents documents, a “major university benefactor” has offered to donate 500,000 units of a Master Limited Partnership (MLP) to the University of Arizona Foundation for the purposes of supporting the university, as well as keeping Miller, Rodriguez and Byrne in Tucson.

According to the documents, as of May 12, each MLP unit was valued at $35.36 for a total donation value of approximately $17.68 million. The units would be managed by Barclay’s for eight years, during which time quarterly distributions of net income on 450,000 units would be distributed for athletics operational purposes. 50,000 units would be held for non-athletics purposes, with quarterly distributions to be used at the university president’s discretion.


Should Miller be the head coach at Arizona eight years from now he’d receive 175,000 units, which he could have sold in order to receive the money gained as a result of the sale. As for a buyout, if Miller were to lose his job without cause (losing too many games would qualify) he’d “receive a pro-rated share of the unit value through the first four years.”

In five seasons at Arizona Miller’s amassed a record of 129-48, winning 23 games or more in each of the last four seasons. The Wildcats will have to account for the early departures of Nick Johnson and Aaron Gordon, with the former being the Pac-12 Player of the Year.

But the combination of returnees and a very good recruiting haul led by wing Stanley Johnson means that Arizona is expected to be a national title contender in 2014-15.

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