Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley finally signs contract extension after 11-month delay

Arizona State men’s basketball coach Bobby Hurley has signed his contract extension, nearly a year after it was announced, keeping him with the Sun Devils through the 2025-26 season.

ASU provided the document to The Arizona Republic and USA TODAY on Tuesday.

Hurley’s base compensation increased to $2.8 million this season based on a signed term sheet, but he hadn’t signed a legally-binding contract, The Republic and USA TODAY reported last week, after ASU was unable to produce the document for months in response to a public records request. ASU refused to release the term sheet.

Hurley’s previous contract was set to expire on June 30.

Martin Greenberg, the founder and former director of the National Sports Law Institute at Marquette University, told The Republic the yearlong delay was “extraordinarily unusual.”

The terms of Hurley’s contract extension were approved by the Arizona Board of Regents in April 2023 and include up to a $2 million buyout, should Hurley leave ASU for a coaching job with another school.

ASU (14-18) lost six of its final seven games, including a blowout loss to Utah in the first round of the Pac-12 tournament, leading some Sun Devils fans to speculate about Hurley’s future with the program.

Arizona State, Arizona, Utah and Colorado move to the Big 12 Conference next season.

ASU officials and Hurley's agent said the move to the Big 12, announced in August, five months after the school originally announced Hurley’s contract extension, and the resignation of athletics director Ray Anderson in November contributed to the delay in the basketball coach signing his extension.

The situation raised questions about the ASU athletics department’s business operations under Anderson at a time when the university is still searching for his successor and its archrival, the University of Arizona, is under intense scrutiny because of financial mismanagement partially attributed to its athletics department. The Arizona Board of Regents oversees both universities.

Hurley’s contract extension was signed on Friday by the basketball coach and James Rund, ASU’s interim vice president of athletics, and bears the undated signature of ASU president Michael Crow. There is no specific mention of the Pac-12 Conference or Big 12 Conference in the 28-page document, which includes references only to the generic term “conference.”

Hurley, one of the state’s highest-paid public employees, has led the Sun Devils to the NCAA Tournament in three of the previous five years it was played, excluding 2020, when the tournament was canceled because of the pandemic. ASU likely would have made the bracket that year, as well.

The Sun Devils won a play-in game last year but have not advanced beyond the first round in Hurley’s tenure. He has a 156-130 record since joining Arizona State in 2015.

Hurley was paid $2.6 million in fiscal 2022, making him the state’s second-highest paid public employee, behind only former ASU football coach Herm Edwards, according to public records.

The most recent amendment to Hurley’s contract, signed in 2019, showed he was entitled to $2.7 million this season.

The contract extension announced last year and signed this week added two years to Hurley’s deal, continuing his employment through June 30, 2026, and increased his annual compensation to $2.8 million on July 1, 2023.

It also increased his annual compensation by another $100,000 each subsequent year and provides further opportunities to increase his salary by up to $425,000 each year based on the team’s performance. Hurley also remains eligible for more than $2 million each year in one-time performance incentive bonuses.

The extension also granted Hurley a $500,000 retention bonus on Jan. 1, 2024, and a $600,000 retention bonus on Jan. 1, 2026.

Hurley’s buyout is listed as $2 million if he terminates the agreement before June 30, 2024, and $1.5 million the following year, but those amounts are halved because Anderson is no longer athletics director.

Should ASU terminate the contract without cause, it will owe Hurley all of his remaining base salary and additional salary, including up to his entire 2026 retention bonus. Hurley can choose to halve the liquidated damages if he’s hired for another Division I coaching job.