Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

Arkansas State did more than improve its bowl standing and make a little history with last week’s victory against Florida Atlantic.

Thanks to a seventh victory the Red Wolves trigged a one-year extension clause in Coach Hugh Freeze’s contract. A provision in his deal calls for an automatic rollover in the case of seven wins or a bowl appearance.

ASU has seven wins. The Red Wolves are likely on their way to either the New Orleans Bowl (Dec. 17) or GoDaddy.com Bowl (Jan. 8, Mobile). That puts Freeze under contract until March 1, 2015.

ASU appears on the way to bowl either as the Sun Belt Conference Champion or an at-large pick. Should the Red Wolves win the league, Freeze is also in line for $17,500 bonus. (For more on Freeze's incentives check out this post on IllegalShift.com.)

A $5,000 bonus would kick in if he earned the Sun Belt Coach of the Year honors.

Currently, there is a $225,000 buyout built into Freeze’s contract if he leaves prior to March 1, 2012. Between March 2, 2012 and March 1, 2013 the buyout drops to Freeze’s base salary ($151,660) and from that point until Mach 1, 2014 the buyout becomes half the base.

How the automatic extension impacts the buyout is not immediately known.

ASU Athletic Director Dean Lee told The Jonesboro Sun in a report that ran today more discussions on Freeze's contract will happen after the season:

"We have had some dialogue about working and having further conversations about his contract and other concessions that we will or may want to put in there down the road. We try to have all that dialogue at the end of the season. We don't want it to be a distractino to the coach, staff or the team. Coach is very well aware of our appreciation of the success of what he has done, where we're at and where we're headed."

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Illegalshift.com contributed to this report. A FOIA request for Freeze's contract is currently being fulfilled by ASU.