COLUMBIA, Mo. — Gary Pinkel helped lead long-suffering Missouri into college football's elite this year. Now he has the contract to match that lofty perch.
Missouri athletic director Mike Alden announced Sunday that Pinkel will receive a $550,000 annual raise, boosting his guaranteed compensation to $1.85 million a year.
Pinkel also gets a one-year extension through 2012. Late last season, he was given a $225,000 raise and three-year extension.
The announcement comes as No. 7 Missouri (11-2) prepares to face No. 25 Arkansas (8-4) in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 1 in Dallas.
Pinkel, 55, is in his seventh season at Missouri, which won the most regular season games in school history and was briefly ranked No. 1 in both the AP and BCS standings before losing the Big 12 Conference title game to Oklahoma in early December.
"Winning the Big 12 North title this season was the first championship of any kind in football in nearly 40 years here," Alden said. "We want to recognize that achievement and put our head coach in a recruiting position to capitalize on this momentum."
Pinkel is 48-37 at Missouri and 121-74-3 in 17 seasons overall. The pay raise makes him the third-highest paid head coach in the Big 12, behind only Bob Stoops of Oklahoma and Mack Brown of Texas, both of whom make in excess of $2.6 million annually.
Nine assistants and three other athletic administrators involved with Missouri football will earn a collective $300,000 pay raise, bringing their combined salaries to just over $2 million.
Pinkel also will be able to offer his offensive and defensive coordinators two-year deals, a deviation from the one-year contracts that are common for college football assistants.
Alden said that he had not spoken to other schools seeking to interview Pinkel, whose name was linked to the Michigan vacancy before the hiring of Rich Rodriguez.
PATERNO NOT IMPRESSED BY MILESTONES: Joe Paterno doesn't have much use for numbers.
Sure, the legendary head coach has been at it for 42 years, his 500th game is set for Saturday, and he turned 81 last weekend.
But JoePa isn't worried about all those figures, or any applause that come with them.
"I don't even think about it to be frank with you. Whether it's 499 or 501, I don't really know," Paterno said Sunday before Penn State's first practice ahead of Saturday's Alamo Bowl matchup against Texas A&M.
"The profession we're in ... is one where you've got to understand, they love you one day and two days later — 'How dumb can you be?"' Paterno said. "So to be able to have survived this long, I think that's a credit to the institution more than it is to me."
The veteran is about to enter the last year of a four-year contract that expires following the 2008 season and speculation is building over whether he will retire. Paterno, who took over at Penn State in 1966 from Rip Engle following 16 years as Penn State assistant, said he's just glad to keep doing what he does.
"You try to, just try to do the best you can and make sure that what you've got can help the whole university," Paterno said. "You don't know whether you're 80 or you're 81. You get up in the morning, you get a little stiffer."
The sometimes grouchy Paterno, who shooed cameras away on Sunday, then later apologized that he "blew my stack," said the game between his Nittany Lions and the Aggies is essentially an away game for Penn State.
"It's loud and they're (A&M fans) enthusiastic and I think it'll be a good football game," Paterno said.
In contrast to his decades of experience with one team, Paterno will be coaching against Gary Darnell, A&M's defensive coordinator, who was named interim coach last month after Dennis Franchione resigned.