On Monday, Cincinnati officially signed its head coach Mick Cronin to a new seven-year contract worth $2.2 million per year. Cronin announced the agreement after the university board of trustees approved the deal early Monday morning.

Cincinnati's move is meant to secure Cronin with the Bearcats long-term, and help continue their place among the AAC elite. Cincy finished tied for first with Louisville in the 2013-14 regular season with a 15-3 mark. The Bearcats sported an overall 27-7 record last year and earned a 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament, before bowing out in the second round to 12 seed Harvard. Despite the early exit, the University feels like Cronin is the right man to take the basketball program forward.

“Everything that needs to happen here is going to happen and I'm pretty confident in that,” Cronin said recently, before the contract was finalized. “I think I've made it pretty clear where I want to be. I don't think I've ever wavered on that one.”

Cincinnati’s deal with Cronin is another example of the new American Athletic Conference solidifying itself as one of the best basketball conferences in the country. The last two national champions, Louisville and Connecticut, resided, at least temporarily, in the conference, which broke away from the Big East at the beginning of last season. (Louisville was a member of the Big East when it won the title in 2013 and will join the Atlantic Coast Conference next season.)

Cronin's deal comes at the heels of a five-year contract signed a few weeks ago by Kevin Ollie of UConn, said to be worth $2.8 million per year. The AAC also features high-powered (and highly-paid) coaches Larry Brown, who will take home $2.8 million per year at Southern Methodist and Josh Pastner from Memphis, who is set to earn nearly $1.7 million a year.

Cronin, who has been with Cincinnati since 2006, has won 162 games and earned four straight trips to the NCAA Tournament. Combined with his 69 victories at Murray State, Cronin has compiled 231 wins over his coaching career.

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