Auburn and Bruce Pearl Are Now The #1 Team In College Basketball
Former Tennessee Basketball head coach Bruce Pearl became the Auburn head coach in 2014. Now, eight years later, Auburn has announced that Pearl will be sticking around for much, much longer.
According to Auburn on Friday, Pearl and the Tigers have agreed on an eight-year extension worth 5.4 million dollars per year with a $250,000 annual escalator. Additionally, according to ESPN, Pearl’s deal with Auburn will “max out at $7.15 million during the 2029-30 season and has a total value of $50.2 million.”
“My intent when I came to Auburn was to have enough success for this to be my last coaching job,” Pearl said in a Twitter statement on Saturday. “I am grateful to all of my players, coaches and support staff for making history. Auburn will be our family’s forever home. I am humbled and blessed to be your head coach for a very long time. War Eagle!”
In addition to the official announcement itself, Auburn athletics director Allen Greene posted a video of himself and Pearl to Twitter with the caption, “Coach Bruce Pearl is [locked] for life.”
🚨🚨🚨 BREAKING NEWS 🚨🚨🚨@coachbrucepearl is🔒for life! #WarEagle pic.twitter.com/vtfZ8yWFAF
— Allen Greene (@AGreeneIV) January 29, 2022
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The former Tennessee basketball coach said in the video that the extension with Auburn “wasn’t that hard” to agree on.
In his entire career coaching Auburn, including this year’s 17-1 start, Pearl is 155-93 as the Tigers head coach. In the 2017-2018 season, the Tigers finished tied for first with Tennessee in the SEC regular season standings, and then went on to make the Round of 32 in the following NCAA tournament. Then, just one year later, the Tigers hot streak carried them all the way into the Final Four. Additionally, in that 2018-2019 season, Pearl and the Tigers won the SEC tournament.
Earlier this season, Pearl served a two-game suspension for his role in Chuck Person’s NCAA infractions case.
Prior to his time at Auburn, Pearl was the head coach at Tennessee for six seasons. During his time in Knoxville, Pearl led the Vols to a record of 145-61. While at Tennessee, Pearl was a two-time SEC East divisional champion and a one-time conference regular season champion in 2007/2008.
It’s official!
📰 https://t.co/2p3Ww7cFgn#WarEagle pic.twitter.com/ZxJ2ACisO3
— Auburn Basketball (@AuburnMBB) January 29, 2022
