New Western Michigan head men's basketball Kahil Fennell will earn at least $400,000 a year in base salary, with his pay rising to $500,000 for the final season of the contract he signed earlier this month.Fennell signed a five-year deal that calls for a $25,000 raise each year through the duration of the contract, according to terms of the contract obtained by The News through an open-records request.Fennell, 43, was hired away from the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley late last month, replacing DJ Stephens, who was fired after four losing seasons.Fennell's contract is in line with Stephens' contract, which was paying him $420,000 a year. Western Michigan is paying Stephens a $420,000 buyout.

Fennell's deal puts him second in the state among the four known contracts of mid-major head men's basketball coaches, behind new Eastern Michigan head coach Billy Donlon ($450,000), and ahead of Oakland's Greg Kampe ($400,000) and Central Michigan's Andy Bronkema ($360,000). Mark Montgomery's contract is unknown, as Detroit Mercy is a private school and doesn't have to adhere to state open-records regulations.How much will Kahil Fennell make at Western Michigan?As part of his contract, Fennell also will receive a $35,000 signing bonus as well as four weeks of temporary housing paid by the university while he gets settled into the Kalamazoo area with wife Sarah and two children.

Fennell's deal includes a lengthy but standard bonus structure that, among the most notable line items, would automatically add a year to his contract for every 20-win season. He also would receive $25,000 for winning a Mid-American Conference regular-season championship and $25,000 for winning a MAC tournament championship. There's a $15,000 bonus for a top-four seed in the MAC tournament, and a $15,000 bonus for an NCAA Tournament at-large selection.

There are stepper bonuses for success in the NCAA Tournament, and there are more modest (and achievable) bonuses for a winning MAC record ($5,000), winning nonconference record ($5,000), MAC coach of the year ($5,000) and an NIT bid ($2,500), as well as up to $7,500 in bonuses based on Western Michigan's attendance and up to $5,000 in bonuses based on his players' academic success.He also will receive the standard fringe-benefits package, including a car and cell-phone allowance, membership to a country club, six priority season tickets for basketball and football, as well as free travel for his family to all away games and postseason games.The buyout of the contract is the same both ways. If the university fires him for cause, it will owe him 75% of the remaining base salary (offset by future earnings in basketball), and if he leaves for another job, Fennell will owe the university 75% of the remaining base salary.Western Michigan is paying UT-Rio Grande Valley $300,000 to buy out Fennell's contract.Who is new Western Michigan coach Kahil Fennell?Fennell is considered a rising star in basketball coaching circles, after just two seasons as head coach at UT-Rio Grande Valley, where he was 35-29, including 19-14 this past season.

He previously was on Mark Pope's staff at BYU and Mark Pope's staff at Louisville. Just over a decade ago, he was living in the Bay Area in California and working in medical sales, before he found his calling while coaching high-school basketball.He takes over a Western Michigan program that hasn't had a winning season since 2017-18 and hasn't made the NCAA Tournament since 2014, but a program that next year will move into a new, $500-million-plus arena.Fennell is busy putting together a roster, after nearly the entire 2025-26 Western Michigan team entered the transfer portal. Fennell did sign two players from UT-Rio Grande Valley, point guard Jaylen Washington and guard Julien Gomez.

Fennell also recently announced his coaching staff, bringing assistants Dustin Yoder, Cam Clark and Michael Provenzano (a former graduate assistant at Michigan State) from UT-Rio Grande Valley, and hiring Bobby Horodyski from Queens University. Horodyski and Fennell previously worked together at BYU.tpaul@detroitnews.com@tonypaul1984This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Western Michigan basketball coach will earn at least $400,000 a year