ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Tim Griffin

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops' new contract is a smart-money move by the school calculated to keep him coaching the Sooners for a long time.

	AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki
	Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops should be head coach of the Sooners for several years to come.

Stoops' new deal includes an $800,000 bonus if he remains employed at Oklahoma on Jan. 1, 2011, along with a yearly $700,000 bonus. If he remains through 2011, it would pay him $4.875 million for coaching that season, the Tulsa World reported.

That money kicks in at an interesting time -- the peak of the NFL hiring season. It obviously was written with the idea that the next challenge that Oklahoma will have to battle for Stoops' services won't be another college job but an NFL team.

I've always thought that Stoops is better suited for a college job. But it wouldn't surprise me if he wanted another challenge later in his career -- like perhaps after his children are out of high school in eight or nine years.

In the interim, Stoops is paid lavishly to coach the Sooners -- for good reason. Even with the team's recent BCS bowl-game troubles, the Sooners made history last season by becoming the first Big 12 team to claim three-straight conference championships.

He's 6-1 in Big 12 title games, outscoring opponents by a combined margin of 219-79 in those victories. No other coach has won more than one Big 12 title.  

He's already pocketed a $3 million bonus in January, shortly after the Sooners' BCS title game loss to Florida. And he would be making $4.875 million per season if he's coaching the Sooners in 2011. The total value of his seven-year deal would be $30.125 million.

The new deal provides some tangible improvements that his bosses have taken notice of what he's accomplished. His bonus for playing in the Big 12 title game or a BCS bowl game was increased by 10 percent. And his access to the use of a private airplane provided by the university was boosted by 10 additional hours to 45 per year.

Nice perks, indeed.

His assistants all got raises, too. Defensive coordinator Brent Venables' salary was boosted by $50,000 to $395,000 and offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson got a $100,000 raise to $385,000. Former Sooner quarterback and current quarterback Josh Heupel earned a bump to $200,000.

Stoops shouldn't be worrying about money in the foreseeable future. And the school is making a shrewd investment in insuring they probably won't be worrying about losing him over the next few years, either.