In just his second season, Lamont Paris led the Gamecocks to a 25-6 record while going 13-5 in conference play with a 2nd place finish. Projected to finish last in the conference, it goes without saying that Paris more than deserved to be named the SEC coach of the year.

With all of this success, a contract extension seemed imminent, and recent reports are indicating that one has been made to keep Paris as the head coach for the Garnet and Black through the 2029-2030 season at $4-5 million/year. Do the value and duration of this contract make sense for the Gamecocks?

The decision to extend Lamont Paris as the head coach was absolutely the right call by Ray Tanner. Paris is an Ohio native, and there were reports that Ohio State would make a run at Paris. These rumors began to gain steam once OSU fired their head coach creating a vacancy calling Paris’ name.

Many figured that the Buckeyes could offer a contract that would be hard to turn down. There was no time to waste, so getting this done prior to the tournaments was the best thing to do for the Gamecocks. I don’t think anyone would argue that locking up the promising head coach was the correct decision. That said, I think the two variables of the contract worth looking into are value and duration.

The value of $4-5 million/year will take Paris from the lowest paid coach in the conference to middle of the pack and will put him on par with the contract values of Buzz Williams, Nate Oats, and Eric Musselman. I think this is a fair yearly value for a coach still in his 2nd season with the program.

There is no reason to believe that he won’t be able to sustain this level of success, but the last thing you would want to do is overpay a coach based on one stellar season and then become money trapped if he and his team do not consistently perform. The value of this contract is fair given the small body of work and value of what other coaches are making with similar resumes. 

The other aspect of this contract is duration. A 6 year contract is a reasonable period of time which will give him plenty of time to imprint his identity on the program. Embedded in the significance of the duration of the contract is the recruiting talent and success of Lamont Paris. We all know the challenges that the current format of college athletics poses to coaches when they’re establishing a program.

If a coach can recruit well at both the high school and transfer portal levels, and retain that talent, he won’t have a problem creating a culture built to win over the long haul. I think the biggest reason 6 years is a fair duration is that Paris won with his guys. He is not the beneficiary of the previous coaching staff that had a strong nucleus in place.

Paris has built South Carolina into a tournament bound team in just two seasons by winning the transfer portal and recruiting well at the high school ranks. I think what remains to be seen fully is his ability to keep guys in the Garnet and Black. I have no reason to believe that he won’t be able to do this, but granted that he does and continues to recruit at the level he is, South Carolina just got a steal with this contract.