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 Thursday, April 20
Izzo close to signing seven-year contract
 
 Associated Press

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Michigan State coach Tom Izzo likely will receive a seven-year contract worth $1.1 million a year, part of his reward for leading the Spartans to the NCAA championship.

The deal would boost Izzo's annual base salary of $195,000 to $267,000, Fred Poston, Michigan State University's vice president for finance and operations, told the Lansing State Journal in a story published Thursday.

Other incentives yet to be completed, including a shoe deal and television and radio contracts, would push the package to $1.1 million, Poston said. Izzo's current contract is worth about $725,000.

"We're very, very close," Terry Denbow, an MSU spokesman, said Thursday. He said the contract may be concluded in the next several days.

MSU officials began reworking Izzo's pay formula after he led the Spartans to the NCAA title on April 3. It was the school's first national crown since 1979.

Though the new deal hasn't been signed, the two sides have agreed in principle to a package that would put Izzo among the game's best-paid coaches, Poston said.

MSU Board of Trustees Chairman Bob Traxler said he was torn over Izzo's raise. He said coaching salaries are getting out of control, but MSU must compete to get the best.

"I don't think we can buck the free market," he told the State Journal. "The most popular person in the state of Michigan at this moment is Tom Izzo -- and deservedly so."

Izzo was out of town recruiting Wednesday but said in a statement:

"This university has done a lot for Tom Izzo . . . I am grateful for the support that I and the program have received."

The coach's current five-year contract extends through 2004.

Izzo would keep a postseason performance bonus structure that pays him for success in the Big Ten and NCAA Tournaments, Poston said. This season it was worth $175,500.