The University of Tennessee extended the contracts of football coach Phillip Fulmer and basketball coach Bruce Pearl today that will keep them with the school through 2014.

Fulmer, the longest tenured SEC coach with one school, got a deal worth an average of nearly $3 million through the next seven years.

He will be paid $2.4 million for the 2008 season, and his salary escalates to $3.3 million in 2014 with automatic raises of $150,000 annually. The deal also includes a range of potential performance bonuses.

Fulmer would receive $1 million longevity bonus in December 2012, which would be his 20th anniversary as head coach.

New contracts were also announced for the football assistant coaches.

Pearl, who was already signed through 2013 and made $1.3 million last season, got a salary increase to an average $2.3 million a year. He will make $1.6 million for the 2008-09 season and the new deal includes a $250,000 bonus and an upfront retention bonus of $1.5 million.

If Pearl elects to leave the Vols anytime in the next five years he would owe a buyout that starts at $2.5 million and decreases incrementally each season to $1 million.

For more on this story read Thursday’s Times Free Press Sports section.

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