TJ Otzelberger, Iowa State agree to multi-year contract extension

Two years ago, Iowa State won two games in 24 tries and failed to win a game in the final three months of the season. Two years later, and Iowa State is ponying up to pay rising third-year head coach TJ Otzelberger a pretty big extension after he took Iowa State to the Sweet 16 in 2022 and then earned a No. 6 seed out of a loaded Big 12 this past year.

Oh yeah, that man deserves to be paid for such a turnaround job and the Cyclones are fully committed to doing so. The school announced Monday that they’ve extended Otzelberger’s contract through at least 2029, granting him over $1.5 million in raises by the end of the deal. Here were the details as provided by Iowa State:

“Otzelberger’s contract now extends through June 30, 2029, and his total compensation will increase to $2.5M on July 1, 2023, $3M on July 1, 2024 and $3.5M on July 1, 2025, followed by $100,000 increases for each subsequent contract year. All other terms of his original contract remain unchanged.”

Assuming he sees it out in Ames and is around until 2029, his projected salary of $3.9 million would rank in the top-15 in the country of current coaches.

That’s a hefty bit of change for TJ Otzelberger but well worth it after the last two years. It also shows a significant financial commitment to the hoops program, which has become quite important in the NIL era.

Along with the announcement of the Otzelberger extension, Iowa State Athletic Director Jamie Pollard added a statement pledging his full confidence in the men’s hoops program going forward.

You can read that here:

“In just two years, Coach Otzelberger and his staff have reimagined the Cyclone program while instilling a culture which has led to great success in the classroom, on the court and in recruiting. The complete transformation of our program in such a short time is a testament to Coach Otzelberger’s leadership and vision for Cyclone Basketball, and he is most deserving of this extension and a compensation increase.

“When we hired TJ, he agreed to take a lower salary on the front end to help us manage the buyout costs associated with the transition with the understanding that we would increase his salary over the first few years of his contract to be more in line with his Big 12 peers. This extension allows Iowa State to reward TJ for the outstanding job he has done first and foremost, while also keeping our promise to him when he was hired. The future of Cyclone Basketball is bright, and I believe even greater success is on the horizon for our program under Coach Otzelberger’s direction.”