What we're hearing about the Missouri State men's basketball coaching search

Missouri State is searching for its next head men's basketball coach following the Sunday firing of Dana Ford.

The university has shared minimal details regarding who is involved in the search and what a potential timeline may be. Several sources have shared details with the News-Leader to provide a little more background on who the decision-makers are.

Here's what we've heard about the Bears' vacant men's basketball opening.

Northwest Missouri State head coach Ben McCollum appears to be the favorite

It doesn't take having a credential to Missouri State basketball games to recognize McCollum is the betting favorite to land the job. Seemingly every national college basketball insider has tied the four-time Division II national championship-winning coach to the Bears' vacancy. It makes a ton of sense.

It still wouldn't be surprising if the Bears were to go in another direction. Ford wasn't on many radars before he landed in Springfield. Paul Lusk's connection came after the Bears experienced success under former Purdue assistant Cuonzo Martin, so they went back to the Boilermaker bench and it didn't work out. Barry Hinson wasn't even the school's first choice when it believed it had Buzz Peterson after Steve Alford's departure.

There's a lot of smoke here. McCollum is already the fan favorite, although a Division II name might not be the sexiest when trying to get fans back in their seats. It's going to take some winning and forward-thinking before that dream can become a reality, anyway.

More: Northwest Missouri State coach Ben McCollum considered 'top target' at Missouri State

According to McCollum's contract at Northwest, which the News-Leader obtained, there is no buyout. McCollum has to give his current employer notice of interviews with other schools and Northwest can waive a one-month notice clause if he was to cancel the contract. He's paid $195,000 this year and $200,000 next. He would likely earn more than double that in Springfield.

If the Bears were to make this move, it may come after Northwest Missouri State plays in this upcoming week's NCAA Division II Tournament regional. Indiana State hired Josh Schertz when he was between coaching Lincoln Memorial in a regional and the NCAA Division II Elite Eight. MSU's timeline could be after March 18 or 19 (depending what day they play) until March 26. The Elite Eight is in Evansville, Indiana, between March 26-30.

Northwest is playing in a difficult regional with the No. 2 Division II team in the nation hosting. Northwest is ranked fourth.

It is ideal for Missouri State to have a coach in place before the Division I Final Four, which begins April 5 in Phoenix, with the event also serving as a large networking event for college coaches, especially when trying to build a staff.

Will Missouri State basketball increase how much it pays its head coach?

There is reason to believe Missouri State will increase the salary it gives its next head coach, depending on their credentials. Dana Ford was paid $478,698 this past season after university-wide raises. His contract initially read that he would be paid $425,000 for the latter years of his deal.

According to reported contracts across the lead and tax forms collected from private institutions within the Missouri Valley Conference, Ford was the seventh-highest-paid coach last season while acknowledging there isn't tax data available for Valparaiso coach Roger Powell Jr. and Evansville's David Ragland, who have been hired over the last two years.

More: Dana Ford makes first public comments since Missouri State basketball firing

Missouri Valley Conference head coach salaries

• Ben Jacobson, Northern Iowa — $900,000

• ***Casey Alexander, Belmont — $865,821

• ***Brian Wardle, Bradley — $821,083

• ***Darian DeVries, Drake — $627,437

• Ryan Pedon, Illinois State — $550,000

• Steve Prohm, Murray State — $520,000

• Dana Ford, Missouri State (recently fired) — $478,698

• Bryan Mullins, Southern Illinois (recently fired) — $475,000

• Luke Yaklich, Illinois Chicago (recently fired) — $428,000

• Josh Schertz, Indiana State — $365,000

• ***Matt Lottich, Valparaiso (fired after 2022-23 season) — $331,843

• ***Todd Lickliter, Evansville (fired after 2021-22 season) — $266,406

*** — Private school data collected from 2022 IRS Form 990

New Missouri State President Richard "Biff" Williams will be paid $475,000 annually. Ford had been paid more than retiring Missouri State President Clif Smart in recent years. The university said Smart's base salary for 2023-24 was $427,409, with Ford making about $50,000 more.

The investment Missouri State makes will be another way to see the expectations the university is setting for its basketball program. With Ford paid seventh-most and finishing ninth, in theory, he fell a bit below expectations. Using the same logic, the return on the university's investment in its head coach exceeded expectations most years under Ford. If the school's serious about winning championships, it could attempt to compete with the league's top programs.

New Missouri State President Biff Williams will have input and can throw a curveball

Multiple sources have indicated Williams has his hands all over the coaching search. That's not a surprise considering it's the situation he will take over and the biggest item he'll take on with athletics heading into his presidency.

That's not to say MSU athletics director Kyle Moats isn't heavily involved. He is and he, along with Smart, will likely be the ones introducing the new coach inevitably in the PRIME Overtime Club once he's introduced.

Williams' role could add an interesting twist when we're not sure what his connections are and what specifics he's looking for in a head coach. Is he looking for a proven winner? Is he looking for a retread? Is he looking for an up-and-coming coach? We don't know except that a source suggested high-major assistant coaching candidates are being explored.

Utah Tech, where he was previously president, has a longtime head coach leading the Trailblazers and was there long before Williams' arrival. The football coach, Paul Peterson, was fired after the most recent season. It hired Lance Anderson, who was coming off a year as a Boise State senior analyst and spending 2007-22 in different roles at Stanford, including five as its defensive coordinator.

It is worth noting, regarding McCollum's candidacy, that Utah Tech jumped from Division II to FCS and Division I under Williams. He saw basketball longtime basketball coach Jon Judkins lead then-Dixie State to eight NCAA Division II Tournaments in nine years. Since moving up to the Western Athletic Conference and Division I, the Trailblazers have yet to win more than 14 games in a season. Maybe that experience could give Williams some pause, maybe not.

Those names have connections out west when Williams is now filling a role in a different part of the country. He spent time at Northern Iowa and Indiana State, so he's not unfamiliar with the region.

Williams' involvement could throw a curveball or he could end up with a coach Missouri State typically hires. Fresh blood in a coaching search will be welcomed by Missouri State fans everywhere.

Here are a few names to ponder

Rodney Perry, Kansas State assistant — Perry caught some buzz recently when his former AAU players were deployed to advocate for him. Those players included NBA All-Star Trae Young and former Kansas standout and Denver Nuggets first-round pick Christian Braun. Perry desperately wants this job and has been angling for it for a long time, according to sources. The former Missouri State player under Charlie Spoonhour has found success at K-State, Link Academy, and building the nationally-recognized MOKAN Elite AAU program. Some will look at his head coaching stint at Avila as a reason to pause, an NAIA program he coached for six years from 2010-16.

More: NBA All-Star Trae Young endorses Rodney Perry to be Missouri State's next head coach

Kyle Smithpeters, Mizzou assistant — A familiar name, Smithpeters was an assistant on Paul Lusk's first staff at Missouri State in 2011-12. He then spent the next decade as a juco head coach at John A. Logan before landing on Dennis Gates' staff at Mizzou before the 2022-23 season. He's brought up here because he was the first name connected to the vacant Southern Illinois job.

Kenny Payne, former Louisville head coach — With Moats involved, the Bears could take a big swing. You always go back to his Louisville connections when considering his hires, notably with former MSU football coach Bobby Petrino. However, Payne was a disaster at Louisville with a 12-52 overall record in two seasons and a 5-35 record in ACC play. The Louisville grad spent most of his career as a high-ranking assistant at Kentucky before becoming a New York Knicks assistant from 2020-22. It's hard to see this happening but a Moats-Payne relationship might have been formed before Moats came to Springfield. Payne will get an $8 million buyout from Louisville, maybe making this a cheaper option if the coach wants to rebuild his career.

Jerod Haase, Stanford head coach — National reports believe Haase will be let go at Stanford. In eight seasons, he only has one NIT appearance and no NCAA Tournament trips. He was hired after a successful stint at Alabama-Birmingham, where he led the Blazers to a pair of 20-win seasons, a Round of 32 appearance in the NCAA Tournament and one NIT. A long coaching career started at Kansas as an assistant under Roy Williams from 1999-03 before he moved with the legendary coach to North Carolina, where he stayed until 2012. The Kansas grad has ties to the region, more than he did out west. Williams also just hired a football coach with a lot of Stanford connections.

Matt Langel, Colgate head coach — It's difficult to ignore what Langel's built at Colgate. He's been there since 2011 and has improved his program each year to where it is NCAA Tournament-bound for the fifth consecutive year when it likely would've been six straight years if COVID didn't get in the way. It's difficult to find connections to Langel and the midwest but he's a winner. It's worth noting that he's paid just over $473,000, according to tax forms, and someone would need to pony up some big money at the mid-major level to get the man dominating the Patriot League to walk away.

Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or Twitter at @WyattWheeler_NL.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri State basketball head coach search update: McCollum, salaries