Iowa State basketball: T.J. Otzelberger's new contract includes salary raise, lower buyout

Iowa State basketball: T.J. Otzelberger’s new contract includes salary raise, lower buyout

Posted by author February 28, 2025 Basketball

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The full details of Iowa State men’s basketball coach T.J. Otzelberger’s contract extension that keeps him with the Cyclones through 2032 have been released.

The new contract, obtained through an open-records request, was signed and dated by Otzelberger, Iowa State athletics director Jamie Pollard and university president Dr. Wendy Wintersteen on Wednesday, and it went into effect earlier this year on Jan. 1.

The extension was first agreed upon and announced in December.

Otzelberger is in his fourth season as the head coach of the Cyclones. Iowa State was coming off a 2-22 season before his arrival. Since then, he has taken the Cyclones to the NCAA Tournament each year.

T.J. Otzelberger’s new salary, buyout

Otzelberger’s base salary plus additional compensation increased to $4 million. It was previously raised from $2 million to $2.5 million on July 1, 2023.

It is a sizable increase for Otzelberger. According to USA Today’s college basketball head coaching salaries database released last year for the 2023-24 season, the Iowa State coach ranked third-to-last in the Big 12.

This new salary would push him closer to the top, behind the likes of Kansas’ Bill Self, Baylor’s Scott Drew and Houston’s Kelvin Sampson.

Iowa State also acknowledges that Otzelberger has the right to accept another Division I coaching position or an NBA front-office or coaching job, and that the school would be entitled to a buyout.

Interestingly, his buyout was dropped from $18,225,000 to just $4 million. It cuts down even further to $2 million if Pollard is no longer the athletics director at Iowa State.

Other contract bonuses, incentives for T.J. Otzelberger at Iowa State

He is also entitled to the following bonuses if the following conditions are met, starting with this season.

Regular-season incentives:

$250,000: If the Cyclones earn the No. 1 seed of the Big 12 Tournament at the end of the regular season
$100,000: If the Cyclones earn the No. 2 seed of the Big 12 Tournament
$50,000: If the Cyclones earn the No. 3 seed of the Big 12 Tournament
$25,000: If the Cyclones earn the No. 4 seed of the Big 12 Tournament

Big 12 Tournament incentives:

$100,000: If the Cyclones win the Big 12 Conference Tournament
$50,000: If the Cyclones don’t win the Big 12 Tournament, but they get an at-large bid to participate in the NCAA Tournament

NCAA Tournament and individual award incentives:

$50,000: For each win that the Cyclones get in the NCAA Tournament
$50,000: If Otzelberger is selected as National Coach of the Year (including any sharing of the accolade) as awarded by the Associated Press, USBWA, NABC or Naismith organizations.
$25,000: If Otzelberger is selected as the Big 12 Coach of the Year (including any sharing of the accolade) as awarded by the Big 12 Conference.

T.J. Otzelberger’s coaching career, resume

Otzelberger is the only coach in program history to reach the Sweet 16 multiple times. The Cyclones also won the Big 12 Tournament last season.

Midway through his fourth season at Iowa State, Otzelberger is 91-42 overall. His .684 winning percentage is the best in program history.

He is 190-105 overall as a Division I head coach, a career that also includes stops at South Dakota State and UNLV. He was also previously an assistant coach at Iowa State from 2006-13, and then again from 2015-16.

Eugene Rapay covers Iowa State athletics for the Des Moines Register. Contact Eugene at erapay@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @erapay5.