Auburn athletics director John Cohen received a raise of nearly a half-million dollars to leave Mississippi State last year, according to a report Wednesday by the Opelika-Auburn News.

Cohen will earn $1.598 million in the first year of a five-year deal at Auburn, which hired him away from MSU in October. Cohen reportedly earned $1.1 million in his final year at Mississippi State.

Cohen’s contract — which the OA News obtained through an open-records request — runs through October 2027, and is worth a total of $9.24 million. His salary will go up each year, to $1.723 million in Year 2, then to $1.848 million in Year 3, $1.973 in Year 4 and finally $2.098 million in Year 5.

Should he be terminated without cause, Cohen would be owed a buyout of 70 percent of his remaining contract. There is no mitigation clause, meaning he would receive his full buyout even if he takes another job.

Auburn’s hiring of the 56-year-old Cohen was considered a bit of a coup, in that he is a Mississippi State graduate when had been the Bulldogs’ baseball coach before taking over as AD in 2016. He grew up in Tuscaloosa and first played baseball at Birmingham-Southern before transferring to Mississippi State.

Cohen was officially hired by Auburn on Oct. 31, the same day the school fired football coach Bryan Harsin. Cohen hired football coach Hugh Freeze, and has also spearheaded a number of facilities upgrades in the department.