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Pete Thamel, ESPN
Mississippi State has extended the contract of coach Chris Jans through the 2027-28 season and given him a pay raise that starts at $1 million per year, sources told ESPN.
Jans will make $4.2 million in base salary next season, bumping him from $3.2 million last year. That raise will put among Jans the top half of SEC basketball coaches. The deal includes pay increases and performance incentives, per sources.
Jans has led Mississippi State to back-to-back NCAA tournaments in his two seasons in Starkville, winning 21 games in both of his seasons. He’s 42-27 overall and the back-to-back NCAA appearances are the school’s first since reaching the 2008 and 2009 NCAA tournaments.
The school extended and bumped up Jans’ salary to ride that momentum and show the school is significantly invested in basketball. MSU has gone 8-10 in the SEC in both of Jans’ seasons, which culminated with losses to Pittsburgh in the First Four of the NCAA tournament in 2023 and to No. 9 seed Michigan State in the 2024 NCAA tournament. Jans’ teams combined for three SEC tournament wins during his two seasons there.
Jans came to Mississippi State from New Mexico State. He holds the distinction of being the last coach to beat UConn in the NCAA tournament, knocking the No. 5 seed Huskies out as the coach at No. 12 NMSU in a first-round upset in 2022.
In eight seasons as a head coach at three different Division I schools, Jans has a career record of 185-71 and five NCAA tournament appearances. (He had a 25-win team at New Mexico State that won the WAC regular-season title the season that COVID-19 cancelled the NCAA tournament.)