Houston gives Kelvin Sampson new 4-year contract

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Houston has given coach Kelvin Sampson a new four-year contract following his team’s run to the championship game of the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

The contract will run through the 2028-29 season, the university announced Wednesday.

Financial terms were not announced by Houston, however CBS Sports reported that the deal will keep Sampson “among the highest paid coaches in college basketball.”

However, according to the USA Today coaches salary database for the 2024-25 season, Sampson has a long way to go to reach the top. Bill Self of Kansas, at $8.8 million a year annually, is No. 1 on the USA Today list while Sampson is No. 16 at $4.6 million.

That figure puts him fourth in the Big 12 behind Self, Scott Drew of Baylor ($5.4 million) and Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd ($5.3 million).

“It is hard to truly put into words what Kelvin Sampson has meant to our men’s basketball program, our athletics department, our University and our greater Houston community,” Cougars vice president for athletics Eddie Nunez said in the school news release. “His success as a coach on the court is even more impressive when considering the tremendous impact he has had on the many young men to come through our program.”

Sampson led the Cougars to a 35-5 record in the 2024-25 season, which included a heartbreaking 65-63 loss to Florida in the final of the NCAA Tournament last month.

The 69-year-old Sampson has a 724-311 career record in Division I. Before being hired at Houston in 2014, he coached at Washington State (1987-94), Oklahoma (1994-2006) and Indiana (2006-08). With the Cougars, his record is 299-84.

He has been named Coach of the Year twice — 1995 and 2024.

–Field Level Media