University of Colorado football coach Mike MacIntyre, the near unanimous national coach of the year, has signed a contract extension through the 2021 season, CU athletic director Rick George announced Monday.
The proposed new contract, which as always is subject to the approval by CU’s Board of Regents, will extend his agreement three years, as his previous deal was through 2018. The value of the contract over its five-year length is $16.25 million, beginning with a salary of $3.1 million for the 2017 season with modest increases annually.
He recently completed his fourth season as the school’s 25th football coach, having guided the Buffaloes to a 10-4 record this past fall, including an 8-1 mark in the Pac-12 Conference and the South Division championship.
MacIntyre, 51, is now 20-31 overall at CU, and this fall’s eight Pac-12 league wins was one more in conference play than the Buffaloes had the 2010 through 2015 seasons, which includes the schools’ last year in the Big 12.
“I am ecstatic that we will be at University of Colorado for the foreseeable future, there’s no place my family and I would rather be,” MacIntyre said. “We absolutely love it here, the people have been great and I truly believe this is just the beginning.”
“I am blessed to be entrusted with such an incredible group of young men and a staff who have fought to lay a foundation for this football program,” MacIntyre added. “The support from the administration has been tremendous, as has the enthusiasm from the fans. Together we have come together to accomplish something special. The future is bright for Colorado football.”
CU was 10-27 in his first three seasons, but MacIntyre, who had reversed the fortunes of the San Jose State program prior to taking the Colorado position, had a plan from the start to return the program to national prominence. After enduring records of 4-8, 2-10 and 4-9 his first three seasons, the Buffs tied for the most improved team in the nation in 2016 (a plus-5½ game improvement). After going 2-25 in Pac-12 league games, including a 1-8 mark in 2015, the seven-game improvement was the largest in the conference’s 101-year history, besting the 1940 Stanford team that went 7-0 after an 0-6-1 record the year before.
“I am happy to present this contract extension to the Board of the Regents,” said CU Boulder Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano. “I am delighted that Coach MacIntyre wants to lead our football team for many years to come. He has brought our program back to national prominence and that exposure has benefited the entire university. Coach MacIntyre has motivated our student-athletes to perform at their best both on the field and in the classroom with record levels for team grade point averages.”
“We’re really happy about extending Mike’s contract out through 2021,” George said. “Continuity and consistency are the most important factors for us as continue to build our program. So we’re obviously excited that he we will continue to serve in that leadership role.”
MacIntyre has won seven of the eight national coach of the year awards, all but one at this point, having been afforded honors from Walter Camp, the Associated Press, ESPN/Home Depot, SB Nation and Scout.com, in addition to winning the Eddie Robinson and Bobby Dodd trophies. He is a finalist for both the American Football Coaches Association’s (AFCA) coach of the year and comeback coach of the year awards which will be presented Tuesday in Nashville; he was selected as the AFCA’s Region coach of the year. Alabama’s Nick Saban was honored with the ninth, the Maxwell Club Award.
He also was honored with Pac-12 Conference coach of the year honors, the first CU coach to be so honored since Gary Barnett won the Big 12 nod in 2004. MacIntyre joins Bill McCartney as Buff coaches who have won the national award.
In 2016, Colorado enjoyed its first 10-win season since 2001 and saw its attendance grow from game-to-game this year until the season finale, when the Buffs had their first sellout since 2008.