UH President Renu Khator On Making $6 Million Man Kelvin Sampson’s One Of The 10 Highest Paid Coaches In the Game — “We Want to Make Sure Coach Feels Valued”

To University of Houston president Renu Khator, it’s simple. Kelvin Sampson is one of the best coaches in America — one of the top leaders overall she’s been around in her estimation — so UH needs to make sure that’s reflected in his compensation. The basketball coach’s new reworked and extended contract — one that will pay Sampson more than $6 million per season on average over its four years, sources tell PaperCity — is designed to do just. To show Kelvin Sampson how much the university and its leadership values him.

The new deal will make Sampson one of the 10 highest paid coaches in college basketball (for at least now; the Top 10 can fluctuate year to year as salaries of other coaches change).

“We want to make sure Coach feels valued,” Khator tells PaperCity of getting Sampson in the Top 10. “Because he does put his heart and soul in the program, coaching. And we just want to make sure he does feel that we value him, we appreciate him. So it’s important that he’s compensated properly.”

Five college basketball coaches made more than $6 million last season according to USA Today’s extensive coaching database, led by Kansas’ Bill Self at $8.8 million a season, Arkansas’ John Calipari ($8 million) and UConn’s Dan Hurley ($7.8 million). Eight coaches made more than $5.4 million, which the first year of Kelvin Sampson’s new contract will surpass.

“It wasn’t about a number for me,” University of Houston athletic director Eddie Nuñez tells PaperCity. “For (Kelvin) and I both. I think it was about trying to do what we can do and trying to understand what the objective is.

“It’s not about the dollars and the contract. It’s about making sure we can invest in the assistant coaches to keep the continuity with the staff. Which is key for him. For his success. For everybody’s success.”

With that in mind, Sampson, Nuñez  and the coach’s agent worked on getting a revised and increased compensation pool for Sampson’s assistant coaches and other UH basketball staffers first, Nuñez tells PaperCity. “His No. 1 priority was his assistant coaches and his staff from the beginning,” Nuñez says. “He told me, “I want to get that done Eddie.’ ”

Nuñez’s response? “Let’s do that first.”

“We want to make sure Coach feels valued. Because he does put his heart and soul in the program, coaching. And we just want to make sure he does feel that we value him, we appreciate him. So it’s important that he’s compensated properly.” — UH President Renu Khator to PaperCity on Kelvin Sampson’s new contract

Kelvin Sampson’s New Contract Negotiations Put His Assistants First

Before Kelvin Sampson would join the Top 10 paid coaches in the game, this program transformer made sure he had secured the money to take care of his staff first. Only then, did Nuñez, Sampson and his agent move on to the head coach’s own contract.

This is part of the leadership that strikes Renu Khator about Kelvin Sampson.

“I’m always in awe of what he does,” Khator says. “I keep telling him that so many of us keep taking leadership lessons from him. He has tremendous integrity. He has the passion. But he also cares for his team. For people.

“And I think that is a big characteristic of real leaders.”

The 69-year-old Sampson is now locked up through the 2028-29 season with his son and lead assistant Kellen Sampson still set to take over the UH program after that. Kellen Sampson urged his dad to keep coaching, certain he’s never been better.

“He’s just so good at what he does,” Kellen Sampson told PaperCity earlier this offseason. “And he’s just in the prime of his career.”

Renu Khator, who is also 69, and Kelvin Sampson have plenty in common despite being born worlds apart. There is a shared passion, one that goes beyond any age.

“Passion is the secret sauce,” Khator says. “And he definitely has passion for the game. But he definitely has passion for his players. And I think that is why he is also so successful. What’s the point in doing something where you don’t have passion?

“That’s how I feel. I feel a special passion for the mission that we serve for the students that are here. For the cause we have here. That’s what keeps me energetic.”

With those UH students in mind, Khator notes that she feels that Nuñez securing private donations from basketball program supporters to make pushing Kelvin Sampson’s salary among the Top 10 highest paid coaches in the game possible proved to be essential. That makes the UH president feel even better about the move. Khator wanted to make sure that money from UH students did not go to covering the contract.

Nuñez started the process of securing those donations even before he first broached the idea of a revised and extended contract with Kelvin Sampson back in February. Now no rival coaching staffs can tell recruits that there is uncertainty about how long Sampson will continue coaching at UH.

“I’m so glad he’s committed to the University of Houston,” Khator says of the now four locked-in seasons for Sampson, who’s already taken UH to two Final Fours, and finished one bucket short of winning the national championship in early April. “And we are absolutely delighted, over the top, that he is going to be with us. And going to continue the program. Continue the culture.

“There’s a special magic I think in how he has built the program.”

Now the Magic Maker is locked in for four more seasons, set to be paid for what he is. One of the best to ever do it.