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Auburn, coach Bruce Pearl agree to new 5-year contract

Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl directs his team during the second half in the semifinals of the Final Four NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, April 6, 2019, in Minneapolis. (Charlie Neibergall / Associated Press)
Associated Press
Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl directs his team during the second half in the semifinals of the Final Four NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, April 6, 2019, in Minneapolis. (Charlie Neibergall / Associated Press)

AUBURN, Ala. – Auburn and basketball coach Bruce Pearl have agreed to a new five-year contract.

The deal announced Friday, which is worth about $20 million, runs through the 2023-24 season. Auburn spokesman Kirk Sampson says Pearl will be paid $3.8 million next season with a $125,000 increase in salary annually. The deal includes an $8 million buyout clause that begins next year and decreases by $2 million each year after that.

Pearl led the Tigers to their first Final Four and a Southeastern Conference Tournament title last season, turning around a program that went 15 years without making the NCAA Tournament.

Auburn also won a share of the SEC regular season title in 2017-18. Things haven’t gone as smoothly off the court.

Pearl was hired near the end of a show cause penalty after running afoul of the NCAA at Tennessee. Assistant coach Ira Bowman was indefinitely suspended before the SEC Tournament for alleged involvement in a bribery scheme while at Penn. Auburn fired another top assistant Chuck Person last year after his arrest as part of a federal probe into corruption in college basketball.