{"id":384403,"date":"2026-08-29T09:42:50","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T09:42:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/384403\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T09:42:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T09:42:50","slug":"gators-todd-golden-becomes-highest-paid-coach-in-uf-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/384403\/","title":{"rendered":"Gators’ Todd Golden becomes highest-paid coach in UF history"},"content":{"rendered":"

GAINESVILLE \u2014 Florida coach Todd Golden<\/a> has signed his third contract extension in three years, making him the highest-paid Gators coach in school history.<\/p>\n

Golden will now earn an average salary of $8.25 million annually, including $7.5 million this season \u2014 up from $6 million in 2025-26 <\/a>\u00a0\u2014 as part of a new six-year, $49.5 million deal through March 2032, according to Golden\u2019s agent, Bret Just.<\/p>\n

The deal adds a year to the six-year, $40.5 million deal<\/a> he signed in May of 2025, a month after the Gators won the 2025 national championship. UF\u2019s 65-63 defeat of Houston<\/a>\u00a0made Golden the youngest coach to win a championship since Jimmy Valvano in 1983 at N.C. State.<\/p>\n

Golden\u2019s compensation will now exceed that of football coach Jon Sumrall, who will earn $7.45 million this season. He signed a\u00a0six-year deal worth $44.7 million<\/a> after leaving Tulane for Gainesville in December.<\/p>\n

Golden, 41, also becomes the second-highest paid basketball coach in the SEC, behind Hall of Famer John Calipari ($7.75 million) at Arkansas, and jumps Tennessee\u2019s Rick Barnes ($6.2 million) and Alabama\u2019s Nate Oats ($6.02 million). Ole Miss\u2019 Chris Beard is due to earn $6 million in 2026-27.<\/p>\n

Based on current salary figures from USA Today<\/a>, Golden becomes the fourth-highest paid basketball coach in the nation, behind Kansas\u2019 Bill Self ($8.85 million), UConn\u2019s Dan Hurley ($8.025) and Calipari. North Carolina\u2019s Michael Malone also will earn $7.5 million in his first season with the Tar Heels.<\/p>\n

Golden\u2019s pay will continue to grow. He will receive an annual increase of $300,000 for each year of the deal, reaching $9 million by the final year of the deal in 2031-32.<\/p>\n

Golden\u2019s new deal will increase his base salary from $2.74 million to $4.7 million this season. He will continue to earn $1.8 million for TV\/radio\/PR, an annual $500,000 longevity bonus paid March 31 each year, $250,000 from Nike, $150,00 for supplemental equipment paid by UF\u2019s University Athletic Association and a $100,000 expense account.<\/p>\n

Golden also will have access to 30 hours on the University Athletic Association plane, valued at $62,000.<\/p>\n

A bonus of $100,000 is available if Florida wins the SEC regular-season championship \u2014 as it did last season \u2014 or $50,000 for winning the conference tournament, captured by the 2025 squad. An NCAA Tournament appearance would garner Golden an additional $100,000, with each tournament win worth $50,000.<\/p>\n

Golden now aims to join Self and Hurley as a two-time national championship winner.<\/p>\n

Expected to open the 2026-27 season as the nation\u2019s preseason No. 1, Florida returns two starters from that championship team in power forward Alex Condon<\/a> and center Rueben Chinyelu<\/a>, along with star sixth man Thomas Haugh<\/a>, then a sophomore who was a first-team All-SEC performer<\/a> last season.<\/p>\n

Shooting guard Denzel Aberdeen<\/a>, a key reserve on the title team, is also expected back after spending the 2025-26 season at Kentucky. Aberdeen\u2019s eligibility remains uncertain<\/a> and is likely to force the fifth-year senior from Orlando to seek a temporary restraining order in a state court.<\/p>\n

Starting point guard Boogie Fland<\/a> and 2026 SEC Sixth Man of the Year Urban Klavzar also will return to a team featuring six of its eight primary rotation players and 11 overall from 2025-26.<\/p>\n

The investment in a national championship run is significant, with Golden\u2019s raise coming alongside a roster topping $25 million in NIL spending.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s either championship or bust with this team,\u201d Haugh recently said.<\/p>\n

If the Gators achieve their goal after losing in the NCAA Tournament\u2019s second round, 73-72, to Iowa<\/a> in 2026, Golden could be due another salary bump and could draw interest from the NBA.<\/p>\n

After leading the Gators to the SEC regular-season title, Golden was mentioned this April as a possible successor<\/a> to Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr when he weighed his return before committing to a 13th season with the team.<\/p>\n

UF will require a buyout of $3 million if Golden were to leave for the NBA, similar to his previous deal. The buyout drops to $2 million the following two seasons (2027-29) and $1 million in 2029-30. But if Golden leaves for another school, the cost would be much higher. He would have to pay UF $16 million if he were to leave after this season. The figure drops to $13 million in 2028, $5 million in 2029, $3 million in 2030, $2 million in 2031 and $1 million in the final year of the deal. But if Scott Stricklin<\/a> is no longer UF\u2019s athletic director, the buyout immediately drops to $5 million in the first two years.<\/p>\n

Prior to the 2025 extension, Golden earned $3.6 million annually after he\u2019d originally signed a six-year, $18 million contract<\/a> upon his hiring from San Francisco in 2022, at the time placing him 12th among 14 SEC coaches.<\/p>\n

After he led the 2023-24 Gators to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2021 and re-energizing the fan base, Golden signed a two-year contract extension with a $1 million raise.<\/p>\n

Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GAINESVILLE \u2014 Florida coach Todd Golden has signed his third contract extension in three years, making him the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[111,28,2530,2496,114,139,141,140,76046,110],"class_list":["post-384403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-college-sports","tag-florida","tag-florida-gators","tag-gainesville","tag-latest-headlines","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-social-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}