UNT, new basketball coach Ross Hodge agree to basic terms of five-year deal

The framework of the deal was laid out in a term sheet obtained by the Denton Record-Chronicle on Friday.

UNT promoted Hodge, its longtime associate head coach, after Grant McCasland left the program following the Mean Green’s run to the National Invitation Tournament title to take over Texas Tech’s program.

UNT won Conference USA titles in three straight seasons before that run ended in McCasland’s last year with the Mean Green. UNT rebounded to win the NIT.

The school turned to Hodge to take over UNT’s program after he served as McCasland’s top assistant for six years and handed him a contract with a base salary of $500,000, plus incentives.

Hodge will receive a $200,000 radio/TV stipend in addition to a car allowance and stipends for a club membership and cell phone that push the total value of the deal to $717,316 annually.

There are a series of retention bonuses built into the deal that will be paid annually on April 30. That bonus starts at $50,000 in 2024 and increases by $50,000 annually before topping out at $200,000 in 2027.

There several performance incentives included in the contract, including one tied to the number of wins UNT posts in a season. Hodge will receive $7,500 if UNT wins 20 games, $17,500 if the Mean Green reach the 25-win mark and 37,500 for winning 30 games.

Hodge will earn $10,000 for winning a regular season conference title, $25,000 for winning a conference tournament and $10,000 for being named a conference’s coach of the year.

UNT will have a pool of $645,000 for three assistant coaches and $162,000 for staff members who are not coaches.

The finalized contract must be approved by UNT’s board of regents.

UNT is turning to Hodge to keep its program rolling after McCasland built it into a consistent winner as it makes the transition to the American Athletic Conference next season.

“This decision was not a difficult one for me,” UNT athletic director Jared Mosley said during Hodge’s introductory press conference. “One thing I’ve always believed is that you don’t mess with a winning formula.”

UNT believes it is keeping that formula in place with Hodge, who has come to terms with the school on the parameters of his contract as he looks to build on the Mean Green’s recent run of success.

“We stepped on to this campus six years ago with championship expectations,” Hodge said. “You have to believe that you can be a champion before you are actually a champion. That is the blessing with this group that we are returning.

“We are not going to have to convince them that they can be champions. They are champions.”