Staying Aggies
New Mexico State agrees to new deals for football coach Martin, basketball coach Jans
After the (sports) Year of the Aggies, New Mexico State University on Friday made it clear it wants to do whatever it can to keep the program’s two highestprofile coaches around as long as possible.
NMSU on Friday unveiled the details of new contracts for men’s basketball coach Chris Jans, who in his first season took the Aggies to the NCAA Tournament, and for football coach Doug Martin, who led the team to break the school’s 57-year bowl drought by playing in, and then winning, the Arizona Bowl in December. Both are now under contract through 2022 (for Martin that is through the 2021 football season).
Jans didn’t get a base pay increase, but with a new annual lump-sum retention bonus will make in base salary and compensation $429,000 before performance bonus incentives, which also were sweetened for the second-year coach. That’s a pay raise this coming season of $159,000, the amount of the retention bonus he will receive Nov. 1, if still on staff.
That bonus will be $139,000 on Nov. 1 of the next three seasons, which also coincides with his base salary jumping from $270,000 this season to $290,000 in each of the next three.
Martin, entering his sixth season, had the three-year deal he signed at the beginning of this past season replaced by this new four-year deal that includes a what amounts to about a $44,000 pay bump this season — from $364,044 to $419,640 this season with a $12,000 housing allowance removed from his previous deal. His annual base pay gradually
increases to $437,000 by the 2021 season.
Martin’s deal automatically extends his contract by one season each time he wins six games.
And both new deals, athletic director Mario Moccia made it a point to repeat several times on Friday, are structured in a way that no new money from other operational costs within the department, from the school or from the state are being used.
“We have a mandate to balance our budget each year, which we have done now eight out of the 10 years,” Moccia said prior to any reporter questions during a press conference Friday in Las Cruces announcing the deals.
“We’re proud of that. So, it’s pretty critical that we live within our means and, as you all know, that can make retaining a successful head coach challenging . ... I am pleased to announce that 100 percent of these new salary monies are from private sources and through our debt repayment extension.”
In March, the NMSU Board of Regents voted to extend from three to eight years the ongoing debt service owed to main campus for past years of borrowing to cover repeated athletic department shortfalls prior to Moccia’s arrival. That freed up about $300,000 annually, Moccia said.
Both coaches were out recruiting on Friday and not available for comment.
Both programs’ assistant coaches’ pools will also see slight increases — about $31,000 annually for the men’s basketball program and $60,000 for football.
Jans new deal
Jans, whose Aggies went 28-6 last season and won the Western Athletic Conference’s regular season and tournament titles before playing in the NCAA Tournament, has the same buyout clause as before thanks to his raise coming in the form of retention bonuses and not an increase in base salary.
His buyout clause, should he leave for another job as his two predecessors did — Paul Weir to the University of New Mexico and Marvin Menzies to UNLV — would require him to pay within 45 days the remaining money the contract says is owed to him if he leaves before March 17, 2019. If it’s after that, he would owe one half of the remaining base salary.
He saw his bonus for beating rivals UNM and UTEP jump from $2,500 per win to $5,000 (he swept both teams last season) and also now gets $5,000 for beating any Power 5 Conference school. He also gets bonuses if ticket revenue exceed certain bench marks.
Martin’s new deal
Martin does not have retention bonuses, but now has the automatic extension clause added for six-win seasons and also has a more coach-friendly buyout clause.
Should Martin choose to leave, he would owe half his remaining base salary. Or, if he leaves to take another Division I head coaching job, and NMSU can’t match the offer, Martin can see his payment to NMSU shrink to $75,000 should at least six of his 10 assistant coaches also terminate their deals. After December 2019, the buyout drops to $50,000 if those clauses are met.
Moccia called this clause a “hedge” of sorts, protecting NMSU for paying assistants through June of a fiscal year if Martin happens to leave in December for a new job.
Martin gets $10,000 bonuses for wins over UNM or UTEP (he beat both last season). He also gets bonuses if ticket revenue exceed certain bench marks.