MU sticking with Snyder

Tigers' AD: Coach will be back next season

? Quin Snyder will return next season as Missouri basketball coach, despite a string of recent losses and NCAA-imposed probation, school officials said Friday.

Athletic director Mike Alden told several Missouri newspapers he and top university officials, including the governing Board of Curators, met privately Friday and unanimously agreed Snyder would return next season. Snyder, hired in April 1999 to succeed Norm Stewart, has a contract through 2008 that pays him more than $1 million a year.

Missouri athletic department spokesman Chad Moller confirmed Snyder would return as basketball coach.

“Everyone is in support of coach Snyder, and there are no changes to be made,” Moller said Friday evening.

Heading into tonight’s game against Texas A&M, Missouri has lost six of its last seven games. The team is 10-11 overall and 2-6 in the Big 12 Conference, and Snyder’s overall record at Missouri is 110-74.

If Snyder is fired, his contract says the university must pay him his base salary of $195,000 for each year left on his deal. Snyder adds hundreds of thousands of dollars to his income from endorsements, basketball camps and radio and television packages.