Kansas head coach Bill Self smiles at Kentucky head coach John Calipari as the two sit for makeup before their joint CBS interview on Sunday, April 1, 2012 at the Superdome.

photo by: Nick Krug

By now, you’ve probably read about, or at least heard about, the contract extension that Kansas University men’s basketball coach Bill Self agreed to recently.

The extension, which, if fulfilled, will guarantee Self just over $53 million over the next 10 seasons, locks up the KU coach through the 2021-22 season and further cements him as not only one of the best coaches in college basketball but also one of the most highly-compensated coaches in all of sports.

I’m sure you’d be hard-pressed to find a person around here — whether they’re a KU fan or not — who believes that Self is not worth that kind of money.

• It should be noted, that the previous statement was made assuming you’re talking about people who already have accepted that contracts for both coaches and players are what they are and, outrageous or not, represent the going rate.•

OK, so back to the contract. Like most contracts these days, Self’s new ink includes all kinds of incentives.

• Regular-season conference championship ($50,000)
• Conference postseason tournament championship ($25,000)
• AP Coach of the Year ($100,000)
• Final Four appearance ($150,000)
• NCAA Championship ($200,000)

You know what else it includes? Thanks to a Tweet sent out by ESPN’s Darren Rovell, who was at least the first to announce that he did the math, it includes Self making $14,978 per day. Per day!!! Rovell also pointed out that for the cost of Self’s contract, the folks at KU could build 2.5 Allen Fieldhouses. I’m not exactly sure where those numbers came from, but they sound about right and they put the value of Self’s contract into even greater perspective.

You know what else puts it in perspective? Seeing where Self now ranks among college basketball’s highest-paid coaches.

According to this USA Today data base, Self is now the fourth highest paid college hoops coach in the country, trailing only Kentucky’s John Calipari, Louisville’s Rick Pitino and Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski. The top of the board has changed a little since this report from Forbes Magazine was released last March.

Here’s the current list:

• John Calipari, Kentucky — $5.38 million
• Rick Pitino, Louisville — $4.81 million
• Mike Krzyzewski, Duke — $4.69 million
• Bill Self, Kansas — $3.85 million
• Billy Donovan, Florida — $3.64 million

photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas head coach Bill Self gets down to energize his defense against North Carolina during the first half on Sunday, March 25, 2012 at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis.

Talk about some heavy hitters and some big-time programs. Again, no surprise there, but it still is interesting to see how things sit. One other interesting note from that March article was the fact that, 31 college basketball coaches — including five in the women’s ranks — make at least $1 million per year. The information came from data compiled by USA Today and other sources, the article said.

Something else the Forbes article pointed out that I thought was pretty interesting was that college coaches, especially the good ones, often are paid such high salaries because they are the marquee names at their schools year in and year out.

Sure you get the guys like Thomas Robinson or Mario Chalmers or Paul Pierce coming through for a few years at a time, but they come and go. The coaches stay (at least the winners) and, therefore, compensating them at a high level is easier to do and more beneficial for the universities than it would be for NBA franchises, which are driven by the salaries and superstardom of their top players.

So what does all this mean? Not a whole lot, I guess. Self made a lot of money before this weekend and he still makes a lot of money now. But it certainly is interesting to see how it all breaks down, where it all comes from and where it puts Self in the ultra-competitive coaching world. You think these guys are only competitive during games and in recruiting? No way. You can bet this news opened more than a few eyes at other schools around the country, especially those where the coaches in place wear national championship rings and hang Final Four banners.

Oh yeah, it should also be pointed out that it was a nice move by the KU athletic department to announce this news during a weekend when football wasn’t playing. Not only did that give the Self extension its own spotlight, but it also was a classy gesture toward the football program, especially considering we are still in football season.