UConn announced Tuesday which has hired women’s basketball head coach Geno Auriemma to a five-year contract extension worth $18.7 million.
The deal extends Auriemma’s contract through April 2029. Auriemma will be 75 years old at the end of the extension. The contract all but guarantees Auriemma will finish his career at UConn.
She will remain with the program during a period of unprecedented growth for women’s basketball amid a dramatically changing landscape in college sports.
“Coach Auriemma has dedicated more than half of his life to UConn and our women’s basketball program and will undoubtedly be known as one of the greatest college coaches of all time,” athletic director David Benedict said in a statement announcing the agreement. “His presence, dedication and loyalty to this university and the state are priceless and will be instrumental as we enter the most transformative period of college athletics in the last 40 years.”
Auriemma, 70, has been UConn’s head coach since 1985, for 39 seasons. He has led the program to a 1,213-162 record. UConn’s 23 Final Fours and 11 national championships under Auriemma are the most in the sport.
UConn is experiencing a relative championship drought, having won its most recent NCAA title in 2016. The program remains among the best in the country, having advanced to the Final Four in three of the last four seasons, including this year. The Huskies project to compete for a championship again next season thanks to the return of two-time All-American and 2021 National Player of the Year Paige Bueckers.
“I feel like there’s a lot more that can and will be done, and I’m excited to be the one to do it with my staff and my team,” Auriemma said, according to the announcement. “I’m probably more excited about these next few years than I was about the last 40.”
Auriemma is a nine-time AP National Coach of the Year. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.