The University of South Carolina Board of Trustees met Friday afternoon and has approved a raise and extension for men’s head basketball coach Frank Martin.

The new contract is a six-year deal (four-year extension) that will run through the 2021-22 season, which starts at $2.45 million and will increase $50,000 per year. The final year of the deal will be a $2.7 million salary.

Martin was hired to be the Gamecocks head coach following the 2011-2012 season, a six-year contract in which he made $2.1 million this past season, his fourth in Columbia.

“I feel like his impact on this program has been significant and while we are sitting here today and didn’t make March Madness, we were in a position to be in March Madness. That is tremendous progress in this program,” athletics director Ray Tanner said following the BOT teleconference.

The Gamecocks are coming off arguably one of the best seasons in program history with a 25-9 overall record. They set the mark for most regular season wins, and tied the mark for the most wins and home wins in a season.

Their 11 wins in SEC play was good enough for third in the final conference standings and it was just the fourth time a USC team has won 10 or more SEC games since the program joined the league in 1991.

Martin has led the program to a 70-62 record that went from 14 wins in back-to-back years, to 17 wins in 2014-15, and then the major jump of 25 wins this year.

His pay raise will make him the fourth highest-paid coach in the SEC according to salaries from last season. His $2.1 million salary ranked seventh in the conference.

“This is going to put him in the top four or five in the SEC, probably in the top 20 range nationally and I feel that’s where he should be,” Tanner said. “We are the University of South Carolina in the Southeastern Conference. We have expectations and we should certainly compensate our coaches accordingly.”

SEC coaches salaries 2015-16 season:

1. John Calipari, Kentucky, $7.5 million

2. Avery Johnson, Alabama, $2.83 million

3. Bruce Pearl, Auburn, $2.75 million

4. Rick Barnes, Tennessee, $2.25 million

t5. Kevin Stallings, Vanderbilt, $2.2 million (Now at Pitt)

t5. Mike Anderson, Arkansas, $2.2 million

7. Frank Martin, South Carolina, $2.1 million

8. Ben Howland, Mississippi State, $2.05 million

9. Michael White, Florida, $2 million

10. Andy Kennedy, Ole Miss, $1.925 million

11. Mark Fox, Georgia, $1.7 million

12. Johnny Jones, LSU, $1.5 million

13. Kim Anderson, Missouri, $1.2 million

14. Billy Kennedy, Texas A&M, $1.1 million (terms of extension pending)

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