Northern Iowa locks up Jacobsen for a decade

I doubt that I'm the only one that made the "I wonder where Ben Jacobson will be coaching next year joke" as I watched Northern Iowa put the finishing touches on Kansas on Saturday.

Well, now we know.

Today, Jacobson agreed to a 10 year contract extension with Northern Iowa, locking him up through the 2020 season.

He got a raise as well, getting bump in salary from $289,000 to $450,000, with another $25,000 bump each year throughout the deal.

Jacobson deserves it. For the first time in program history, the Panthers are in the Sweet 16.

I guess Jacobson likes it at Northern Iowa. Stating the obvious, the contract is for a full decade. But the bigger issue is that this might have been Jacobson's best chance at a high-profile job, and there are a lot of places looking to hire, including Iowa. He loses MVC player of the year Adam Koch, 7'0" center Jordan Eglseder, and new SI cover boy Ali Farokhmanesh. While he won't be graduating everyone -- Kwadzo Ahelegbe, Jonny Moran, Lucas O'Rear and promising freshmen Jake Koch and Marc Sonnen all return -- the UNI program may never reach this level of publicity ever again.

But to each, his own. If Jacobson is happy at Northern Iowa and wants to stay there, more power to him. Its rare to find a coach that isn't chasing the bright lights and hefty paychecks that come with major conference coaching gigs.