Liberty University announced on Apr. 17 that it has reached a new contract extension with men’s basketball head coach Ritchie McKay, securing his leadership through the 2031-32 season.
The agreement follows a successful year for the Liberty Flames under McKay’s direction. The team finished the 2025-26 season with a 26-8 overall record and went 17-3 in Conference USA play, winning the regular season title outright for the second consecutive year. The Flames led the league by four games and opened conference play with a 15-game winning streak. Between Dec. 16 and Feb. 19, McKay guided Liberty to a program-record seventeen straight victories.
McKay was named CUSA Gene Bartow Co-Coach of the Year for the 2025-26 season, marking his fourth career conference coach of the year award. He was also one of twenty finalists for both the Jim Phelan Award, which recognizes Division I college basketball’s top head coach, and finalist honors for both the Hugh Durham Award (top mid-major head coach) and Ben Jobe Award (top minority head coach).
During his thirteen seasons at Liberty, McKay has become the program’s all-time winningest coach with 298 victories. Over ten years, he has led Liberty to nine seasons with at least twenty wins—including five campaigns with twenty-five or more wins—and set a school record of thirty wins in the 2019-20 season.
In recent years, Liberty has achieved significant success under McKay’s leadership: four conference tournament titles and seven regular season or division crowns over eight seasons. The team’s eleven titles during this period are tied for most nationally; their total of two hundred three victories is tied for sixth most among all programs in that span; and their .755 winning percentage ranks fourth-best in Division I over those eight years.
McKay has also taken Liberty into postseason competition nine times—four NCAA Tournament appearances, two National Invitation Tournament berths, and three CollegeInsider.com Tournament invitations.
