The Michigan State Board of Trustees approved contract extensions for three of its coach on Friday. The extensions add another year to the contracts of men's basketball coach Tom Izzo, women's basketball coach Suzy Merchant and hockey coach Rick Comley.
"We’ve been doing this for years and years," Trustee Colleen McNamara said. "These are kind of state-of-the-art contracts. We’ve been doing this at Michigan State with three year contracts. (Coaches) always have three-year contracts so next year there will be another three year contract."
Each coach is now under contract for at least four more years. Comley's deal is the shortest of the three, but it now runs through 2014. Merchant now has her contract in place through 2015. And finally, Izzo's contract doesn't expire until 2017.
Each of these three coaches has had success at Michigan State, so the extensions are no surprise. Comley, though his teams have struggled a bit in recent years, won a national championship in 2007. Merchant took the MSU job in 2007 and has led the Spartans to three consecutive seasons with 20-plus wins (the last two seasons MSU has gone to the NCAA tournament). And I think we all know what Izzo has done during his time at MSU. His record of excellence speaks for itself.