Jackson Free Press

While a dark cloud of an NCAA investigation hangs over the University of Mississippi, in-state rival Mississippi State University is working to keep head coach Dan Mullen. The university announced that it and Mullen had come to agreement on a contract extension that could keep him with the Bulldogs until after the 2020 season.

Athletic Director John Cohen announced the four-year extension, which runs until February 2021. Since his hiring in 2009, Mullen has become the second-longest tenured coach in the SEC. University of Alabama head coach Nick Saban, who was hired in 2007, holds the record for the longest tenured coach.

Since becoming the Bulldogs’ head coach, Mullen has led the program to its first No. 1 ranking in school history in the 2014 season. That season, Mullen was named National and Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year.

Under him, MSU is experiencing unprecedented success on the gridiron. The university has been to a school-record seven straight bowl games, had three seasons of nine or more wins in the last six years, and is one of five SEC school to reach a bowl game every season this decade.

Mullen owns a 5-3 record against the Rebels in the Egg Bowl. He has a 61-42 record as the head coach of MSU and a .692 winning percentage, which is the highest (minimum of three years) since College Football Hall of Famer Allyn McKeen (.764 winning percentage) roamed the sidelines from 1939 to 1949.

Heading into this season, Mullen is four wins from tying with McKeen for second place in school wins and is 12 wins behind program leader Jackie Sherrill for first place. In his nine seasons as head coach with MSU, 109 individual and team, single-game, single-season and career school records have been broken.

The 44-year-old coach has done well developing players to play in the NFL. Last season, 19 former Bulldogs were on NFL rosters including Rookie of the Year quarterback Dak Prescott.

MSU isn’t just winning on the field but also getting it done in the classroom. The Bulldogs had a school record of 31 players, was fifth in the conference and landed on the 2016 SEC Academic Honor Roll. MSU is graduating players and earned an NCAA Academic Progress Rate of 971, which is 12 points higher than the national average and near the top of the conference.

Mullen will earn a base salary of $4.5 million this season, but terms were not disclosed for the next three years. A four-year contract is the longest allowed by state law.

MSU will begin spring practice this Thursday, March 2.

The regular season is over for the SEC women’s basketball teams. This week the conference will hold its tournament in Greenville, SC., from March 1 to March 5.

Winning the tournament means getting the SEC’s automatic bid into the NCAA Women’s Division I Basketball Tournament. That automatic bid will be important for a team that is currently outside the projections to make the tournament.

In the latest ESPN Bracketology for the women’s tournament, eight SEC teams could end up in the field. Those eight need to make sure a surprise team doesn’t steal the automatic bid and possibly knock them out of the tournament.

Those teams are Mississippi State University, Texas A&M University, Auburn University, the University of Kentucky, the University of South Carolina, the University of Tennessee and the University of Missouri, which also happen to be the top eight teams in the conference standings.

None of the teams playing on the opening day of the tournament are from our state, so let’s skip to day two when 10th-seed University of Mississippi faces seventh-seed Louisiana State University.

The Rebels might make the tournament if they can reach the championship game, but at 17-12 overall and 6-10 in conference, they more than likely need to win the whole thing. UM is 10th in the conference and behind the University of Georgia, the eighth seed, and ninth-seed Auburn.

The latest Bracketology says Auburn is in the tournament, but the team faces Georgia, which is also 7-9 in SEC play. The Tigers are 17-13 overall and the Bulldogs of Georgia are 15-14. An opening-game lose for Auburn could knock the team out of the tournament and open the door for another one.

The Rebels enter the tournament after a 62-49 win over Texas A&M at the end of the regular season. UM is 4-6 in its last 10 games, which won’t look good to the committee. The team struggled in conference play after going 12-2 in the nonconference slate.

If the Rebels happen to get past LSU, they will have Mississippi State waiting for them in the quarterfinals on March 3. In two games against the Bulldogs, UM has lost by 11 points in the first meeting and 22 points in the second meeting.

But there is hope for the team.

MSU enters the tournament as the second seed but has lost two straight games heading into the postseason. That is not how you want to end the regular season and go into the conference tournament.

Teams want to be peaking at this time of year. Instead the MSU Bulldogs went from playing for the conference title to losing two straight games, ending up as the second seed.

MSU was considered one of the top four seeds overall in the NCAA tournament, but the two straight losses has dropped them to a two-seed in the latest Bracketology. The two …