Auburn Tigers extend men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl 'for life'

AUBURN, Ala. — Auburn coach Bruce Pearl has agreed to a new eight-year contract to remain on the Plains through 2030.

The deal is worth $5.4 million per year, with a $250,000 annual escalator, athletic director Allen Greene announced.

«We locked him up,» Greene said in a video with Pearl that was posted to social media on Friday night.

Auburn secured the No. 1 ranking for the first time in program history this week and enter Saturday's game vs. Oklahoma riding a 16-game win streak and 19-1 record. The 61-year-old Pearl led the Tigers to their first Final Four in 2019.

Pearl said the new deal «wasn't that hard» to agree on.

«The family and I are going to be able to stay and be your basketball coach for a long, long time,» the coach said in the video. «I'm grateful. I'm humbled and I'm blessed to be your coach.»

The Tigers made back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances and were 25-6 when the tournament was canceled because of COVID-19 in 2020.

Auburn is 113-39 over the last four-plus seasons, even with a 13-14 record last season.

The Tigers served a self-imposed postseason ban last season and received four years probation for NCAA infractions involving former assistant coach Chuck Person. Pearl received a two-game suspension for failure to monitor.

Pearl was fired from Tennessee in 2011 after the NCAA charged him with unethical conduct and then additional violations surfaced. Auburn hired him in 2014 to take over a program that hadn't been to the NCAA tournament since 2003.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.