The rich only seem to get richer in big-time college football, so count LSU football coach Les Miles among the sport’s richest.

The University Board of Supervisors approved an amendment to Miles’ contract on Friday that gives him a 15 percent raise and extends his contract by two years through 2019.

Retroactive to Jan. 1, Miles will make $4.3 million annually — up from $3.75 million — good for the fourth-highest salary in college football.

“There is no arguing [LSU] is one of the best football programs in the country,” said Athletic Director Joe Alleva. “[Miles] deserves to be one of the top-five paid coaches in the country. This commitment gives this program continuity, which is something I value for an elite football team.”

The raise marks Miles’ first pay increase since March 2008.

Alleva said the combination of LSU’s recent success and the timing of Arkansas’ interest in Miles for its head coaching vacancy in November “accelerated” the amended contract.

“I had always planned at the end of the season to give [coach Miles] a raise because he’s earned it on the field,” Alleva said. “The situation with Arkansas just exacerbated and sped up the process a bit, but the intention was there all along.”

It’s the third time LSU has amended Miles’ contract on the heels of another school pursuing him.

Miles’ alma mater, Michigan, pursued him in December 2007 and January 2011. 

He earned a contractually stipulated raise after winning the 2007 BCS National Championship, and LSU enhanced his incentive opportunities in August 2011 after Michigan’s most           recent pursuit. 

Miles went on “The Dan Patrick Show” on Jan. 28 in New Orleans and told Patrick he heard out Arkansas because of his relationship with the Razorbacks Athletic Director Jeff Long.

“I had a great relationship with [Long],” Miles said. “He and I worked together at Michigan. I felt like what he was trying to get done was very significant, but I … certainly am very happy at LSU.”

The additional $549,000 in annual base pay comes from Miles’ supplemental media compensation, which is money generated by the Athletics Department. 

He will still earn $300,000 per year as a University employee and $550,000 in supplemental Tiger Athletic Foundation and equipment compensation.

A new length-of-service incentive was also part of the amended deal. 

Each year, $150,000 will go into an account “owned and controlled” by LSU. Miles can collect those funds totaling $750,000 if he coaches through the final regular-season game of the 2017 season, when his contract would have previously ended.

The same holds true for the 2018-19 seasons, after which Miles would collect $300,000 if he remains LSU’s coach.

That increase in earning potential could be offset by an amended buyout clause. If LSU fires Miles without cause before Dec. 31, 2015, it would owe him $15 million, a decrease from the $18.75 million figure in place prior to 2013. 

The buyout dwindles to $12.9 million in 2016-17.

Alleva briefly presented the amendment, fully endorsing the new contract before the Board, which offered no dissent and approved it unanimously.

The Board spent time either praising Alleva for the Athletic Department’s commitment to the University or asking him about the new LSU baseball Hall of Fame, a sharp contrast to the detailed and lengthy discussions about hospitals and a proposed overhaul to Nicholson Drive earlier in the meeting.

Support within the University community wasn’t as overwhelmingly positive. 

At the beginning of the       meeting, several LSU Library staffers spoke, not begrudging Miles his money but pleading with the Board to show a similar commitment to University faculty.

“Go ahead and give Mr. Miles his 15 percent,” associate librarian Lois Kuyper-Rushing told the Board. “But the rest of the LSU family needs recognition for their years of success with more than an                                                            end-of-the-year email thanking us. Find the money to give raises across the board to faculty and staff before LSU becomes one more failed business in Louisiana.”

Herb Vincent, associate vice chancellor and senior associate athletics director, said faculty concerns about Miles’ pay             increase are valid, but University hardships and coaching pay are “really two separate issues.”

“Like the librarians said, you have to reward people when they perform,” Vincent said. “His marketplace is just different and you have to remember where the money’s coming from. It’s all self-generated and the athletics program actually gives money back. To stay at an elite level and give that money back, you have to spend money for an elite coach.”

Miles is 85-21 in eight seasons at LSU, good for the second-highest number of wins in school history. He’s won three Southeastern Conference Western Division titles, two conference titles and a national championship while winning more SEC games (47) since 2005 than any other coach.