College Sports: Chris Beard signs a six-year contract with Texas Tech and becomes one of the country's highest-paid coaches

Texas Tech under Chris Beard is just starting.

Beard has signed a new six-year contract that keeps him at Texas Tech until the 2024-2025 season, school announced Monday morning. Beard, 46, will earn an average of $ 4.575 million a year, making him one of the highest paid coaches in the country.

The agreement, which starts at $ 4.2 million, calls for a $ 3-million buy-back at the end of the first year, double that of a high school, sources told Chuck Carlton of SportsDay .

How competitive is this salary? Beard is expected to make more money than any other basketball coach named John Calipari or Mike Krzyzewski, according to the USA Today NCAA salary database.

"Thank you to President Schovanec, Kirby Hocutt, Tony HernandezBeard said in a press release, "Thanks to our players and staff, past and present, for your commitment to win. Special thanks to our fans and students for your incredible support and passion. Together, we have accomplished great things over the last three years, but we are not satisfied and will continue to work tirelessly to put in place one of the best university basketball programs in the country. "

The announcement comes three weeks after Beard guided the Red Raiders to the climax of the first leg of the program's final: a 85-77 overtime loss to Virginia in the national championship game.

Beard is 76-31 in three seasons at Texas Tech, after guiding the Red Raiders to their first Elite Eight (2018) and Big 12 (2019) championships in addition to this year's Finals, which crowned the most winning season from program history to a record of 31-7.

Beard is the Associated Press National Coach and the Big 12 Coach of the Year.