FARGO — North Dakota State's athletic administration isn't one to publicize new contracts for its coaches. Athletic director Matt Larsen isn't keen on sending out press releases or holding news conferences when inking new deals.
So it was when football coach Matt Entz had a one-year amendment added to his contract in 2020 and again in 2022 when another amendment was tacked on. That information was first reported by The Forum earlier this year.
So it was again when men's basketball coach Dave Richman's contract was amended in June 2022, extending him two years through the 2026-27 season. Richman's previous deal was set to expire after the 2024-25 season.
Richman is in his ninth year as head coach of the Bison. He has a 164-110 record, which includes three Summit League tournament titles and two regular-season co-championships. Richman has a 1-2 record in the NCAA tournament.
Richman's extension keeps his base salary at $250,000 per year with the usual performance bonuses based on victory benchmarks, Summit League championships, NCAA tournament appearances and wins over teams from bigger conferences.
Richman receives a $15,000 bonus if the Bison win 20 games in a season or $20,000 if they win 25 games.
He has an annual $5,000 retention bonus for staying at NDSU.
Richman's base salary makes him the fifth highest-paid men's basketball coach in the Summit League behind Paul Mills at Oral Roberts, Marvin Menzies at Kansas City, Eric Henderson at South Dakota State and Eric Peterson at South Dakota.
Hired in 2014 to replace Saul Phillips, Richman's first contract was a six-year deal that started with a base salary of $190,000.
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He got a two-year extension in 2019 and had signed a new deal in 2020 that ran through the 2024-25 season.
In the contract he signed in 2020, Richman's base salary started at $250,000 a year with an annual $5,000 retention bonus. That was a raise from the $230,000 base he received in his 2019 extension.
He brought the Bison to the NCAA tournament in 2015 and 2019, beating North Carolina Central in a First Four game in 2019 before losing to Duke in the first round. The Bison won the Summit title in 2020, but the NCAA tournament was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Bison are 9-13 this season, including 6-4 in the Summit League. It's been a year of transition after losing four key players in the transfer portal after last season. NDSU is in fourth place in the conference heading into games this week at South Dakota and South Dakota State.