Louisville's Bobby Petrino

[MrMustang1965]

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (Ticker) - Nine months after signing a three-year contract extension through the 2010 season, football coach Bobby Petrino had his deal sweetened by Louisville.

The announcement was made following a meeting of the school's board of directors on Tuesday. The contract enhancements provide increases in salary and achievement bonuses for the remaining five years of Petrino's deal.

The 43-year-old Petrino was making $550,000 a year under his old contract. The new agreement adds a bonus if the Cardinals reach the Bowl Championship Series title game.

The seventh-ranked Cardinals went 10-1 this season and will play unbeaten Boise State (11-0) in the Liberty Bowl on December 31.

Petrino has been mentioned as a candidate for several major coaching jobs in the last month. Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich still expects Petrino to be a hot commodity for high-profile jobs.

"There are certainly schools out there that have more money than us," Jurich said. "But we're going to do everything in our power to keep everything stabilized here."

Among the enhancements, Petrino will now receive a $1 million bonus if he stays through the 2007 season.

Petrino has compiled a 19-5 record in two years at Louisville, which will move from Conference USA to the Big East in 2005.

[Mike Damone]

He deserves it. Louisville could've won the Big East this year and will likely be favored to win it next year. Their recruiting will only improve with the move to a BCS conference. They should've been in a big conference years ago, but Kentucky kept them out of the SEC. They've, fo years, had by far the biggest athletic budgets amongst the non-BCS schools. The big time schools are already after him. This is Louisville's way of telling him that he's already at a big time school.