Not only will ISU football coach Dan McCarney receive a new contract this off-season — his assistants will cash in as well.

McCarney said Saturday he and ISU athletic director Bruce Van De Velde have been talking about compensating his assistants for the recent success of the program.

“We’re real close to finalizing raises for the assistants,” McCarney said.

McCarney and Van De Velde did not provide specifics, but Van De Velde said he will meet with McCarney in the near future between his recruiting visits to evaluate each assistant individually. Van De Velde said no decision has been made about which assistants will receive raises.

McCarney said he hopes all of his assistants will return for next season. None of the ISU assistant football coaches have announced any plans to leave Iowa State.

“In college football, there’s usually movement right after the season, after the national coaches convention — which we just got through with — and after the NFL season, so we’re not through with all of those things yet,” McCarney said. “We’re hoping to keep this staff intact and keep the continuity going.”

Last week, Van De Velde and McCarney agreed in principle on a $925,000 contract through June 2010. The new deal is a 48 percent increase from his previous contract. McCarney’s salary has tripled since the 2000 season when he was paid $300,000.

“We’re very pleased with it,” McCarney said. “When you invest eight years in a program, like I have, it’s nice to be rewarded. I’m very appreciative of what the administration did.”

Van De Velde said neither he nor McCarney have signed the contract yet, because some of its language must be updated.

He said the contract will be signed by February at the latest, and could be finalized as early as this week.

The new deal brings McCarney closer to the median salary of Big 12 coaches, which was $1,078,000 before Oklahoma State gave Les Miles a new $1.4 million contract and Guy Morriss was hired at Baylor for a deal reportedly worth $1 million annually. Van De Velde said McCarney’s raises have been justified.

“Dan McCarney has taken this football program where it has never been before and he has done it with a great deal of integrity on the field and in the classroom,” Van De Velde said. “There is a new respect for Cyclone football that was not evident three years ago.

“We believe that Dan’s guaranteed compensation should be comparable to that of other Big 12 Conference coaches and the head coach at the University of Iowa. It recognizes that continuity is a very important factor in sustaining the success we have enjoyed.”

Van De Velde also stressed that none of McCarney’s salary will be paid with state tax dollars. Instead, football ticket sales, television revenue and other fund raising carried out by the athletic department will be used to cover the deal.

Iowa State played 10 games in front of television audiences in 2002. Home football attendance the in the past two seasons is the highest in 18 years, Van De Velde said.

The athletic department is to receive $2.8 million from the general fund at Iowa State, but Van De Velde said that money will go towards Olympic sports and women’s athletics.

Since 1999, when Iowa State went 4-7 and won just one conference game, Iowa State’s football revenue has jumped by nearly $5 million. The increase is due in large part to three straight bowl game appearances by the Cyclones — a feat that had never been accomplished in the 110-year history of the program.

The Cyclones started the 2002 season with six victories in their first seven games, including a fifth consecutive victory over Iowa and a win against conference nemesis Nebraska. But after rising to No. 9 in the rankings, Iowa State lost six of its final seven games, including a loss 34-16 to No. 18 Boise State in the Crucial.com Humanitarian Bowl.

The sour end to the 2002 season, which included the toughest schedule in school history, came at the hands of four ranked teams that finished with a combined record of 43-11. In all, Iowa State played four different conference champions in 2002.

Iowa State under McCarney

* 36-57 record

* 23-15 in the last three seasons

* Three consecutive bowl game appearances

* Five straight wins over Iowa

* Biggest victory over Nebraska since 1899 (36-14 in 2002)

* First season with three victories over bowl-bound teams (Iowa, Nebraska, Texas Tech in 2002)

* Highest national ranking in school history (No. 9 in 2002)

* First bowl game victory (Insight.com Bowl in 2000)

* Most wins in a season since 1906 (9 in 2000)