Mike White fans can rejoice because on Friday afternoon it was announced that he signed a two-year extension which will keep him in Gainesville until at least the end of the 2024-25 season.
The extension shows just how much Florida’s athletic department thinks of the young coach and what he has accomplished in his first four years at the head of the Gators. While the 89-53 record he has put up so far won’t knock your socks off he has taken the team to three straight NCAA Tournaments and looks poised for a deep run with this current group.
Along with the extension that will see him making $3.2 million in those seasons he got a raise for the upcoming season and he’ll now see $2.8 million. This dollar amount and the term of the extension should help White even more with recruiting as he can see to families that he’s in it for the long haul and communicates to White that the UAA sees him as their guy. It should also hopefully keep away some teams that may want to poach him.
At $2.8 million this upcoming season he’ll be approximately the 27th highest paid coach in college basketball (I say approximately because I have found slightly different information from different sources). He will be also be the 5th highest paid coach in the SEC. It also should be worth noting that when he starts making $3.2 million he’ll be making the same money as Tom Crean at Georgia and only slightly less than Rick Barnes at Tennessee.
If you ask me, that’s value and it’s entirely possible White could have demanded more money if he really wanted to. I don’t want to speak too much into this but the fact he agreed to an extension before he really needed too without demanding a lot shows some level of commitment and love for the Gators.
While there definitely are a lot of major Mike White supporters he definitely have some detractors who won’t be happy to see him getting an extension before he has proven he can get to Elite Eights or better with consistency. The extension definitely shows the UAA sees differently.
Buyout terms weren’t made known but hopefully they never need to be a discussion point. This contract shows a mutual commitment between the Gators and White and should show things are in a great spot for the basketball program.