(Sports Network) - University of Florida head football
coach Urban Meyer received a six-year contract extension on Monday worth a
reported $24 million.

The Orlando Sentinel places the contract among the richest in the country for
Football Bowl Subdivision head men at $4 million per season, making Meyer the
highest paid coach in the Southeastern Conference.

Meyer acknowledged the pact on his Twitter page, saying "My family and I are
dedicated to Florida and are excited to be a Gator for another six years."

Florida captured its second national championship in three seasons last year
with a 24-14 triumph over Oklahoma in the BCS title game. Meyer is the first
coach ever to win two BCS championships after the Gators waffled Ohio State,
41-14, in 2006. He remains the only coach in the history of the SEC to win two
outright national titles.

Over four seasons in Gainesville, Meyer has a 44-9 record, including a total
of 35 wins in the last three years, tying for the best win total in the nation
over that span. He took over for the embattled Ron Zook in December 2004 and
has gone on to tie for the third-best victory total in the nation in that
span.

Meyer took his first head coaching job at Bowling Green in 2001 and posted a
record of 17-6 in two seasons with the Falcons before moving on to Utah, where
he guided the Utes to a mark of 21-2 in two seasons.

His success at Utah launched Meyer into the national spotlight after garnering
National Coach of the Year honors from The Sporting News in 2003 when he
piloted the program to a 10-2 record, their first outright conference
championship since 1957. The Utes also won a bowl game and a final national
ranking of No. 21. He became the first coach from the Mountain West Conference
and just the second coach from a non-BCS program to receive the coveted TSN
award.

He was also voted the MWC Coach of the Year, becoming Utah's first conference
coach of the year selection since 1978. He became the only coach in Utah's
111-year football history to win a conference title in his first year.





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