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Leonard Hamilton inks a rich contract extension through 2017

Leonard Hamilton

Florida State head coach Leonard Hamilton has signed a contract extension that will keep him in Tallahassee until 2017, the school announced on Wednesday.

“I am extremely thankful to President Eric Barron and our administration for allowing us to continue to build upon the foundation that we have worked so hard to put into place in my first 11 years at Florida State,” Hamilton said in a release. “We are excited for our university and our basketball program as we enter a new era in the Atlantic Coast Conference which is now the best league in the history of college basketball.”

“We are excited to have Coach Hamilton continue to lead our basketball program at Florida State through the 2016-17 season,” said Barron. “Coach Hamilton has led this program to unprecedented success including the first ACC Championship in school history and eight straight postseason appearances. He is the second-longest tenured coach in the conference and under his leadership FSU is in excellent position entering the new ACC, which is the strongest basketball conference in the nation.”

Ham has won two ACC Coach of the Year awards with the ‘Noles, in 2009 and 2012, and the program has reached heights that they haven’t seen since the days of Bobby Sura, Sam Cassell and Charlie Ward. FSU had reached the NCAA tournament the past four seasons prior to 2013; they had only made the tournament one since 1993 prior to that streak.

With Syracuse, Pitt, Notre Dame and, eventually, Louisville joining the ACC, the Seminoles needed to make a move to ensure recruits that Ham would be around for the long term. Consistently challenging for the ACC title is going to be a difficult thing to do in the ACC, so ensuring longevity was important.

According to the twitter feeds of local beat writer Corey Clark, Hamilton’s deal looks to be for $8.5 million over the next four years, but he also has some valuable incentives: $150,000 for an ACC title, $200,000 for an NCAA tournament appearance, $275,000 for a Final Four appearance. In total, Ham would get $1.4 million if Florida State wins a national title, which is unlikely but quite valuable.

You can find Rob on twitter @RobDauster.