thebigabd
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2008
- Messages
- 13,496
- Reaction score
- 77
Calling their bluff: October extensions ploys for blue chips
Oct. 2, 2009
By Gary Parrish
CBSSports.com Senior Writer
Tell Gary your opinion!
What's the best sign that it's recruiting season?
Contract extensions, baby!
Penn State and Bowling Green each announced extensions Thursday, and earlier this week UConn leaked a story that Jim Calhoun is in discussions to remain with the Huskies forever and always (or something like that). The motives are as obvious as they are hilarious. I mean, seriously, can you think of one legitimate reason for a school to be hammering out an extension for a basketball coach in October?
No coach is on the verge of accepting another job.
No coach has one foot out the door.
Practice starts in two weeks.
So unless a coach is involved in a scandal, he's going to be coaching at the school where he currently resides. Thus, extensions are completely unnecessary, except for how they can help send a message to prospects (real or otherwise) that a particular school is committed to a particular coach (and vice versa) as November's National Signing Day draws near. That's why they're announced or leaked now, and the UConn story was the best. It made headlines just days after a pair of top 10 national recruits -- Tobias Harris and Josh Selby -- eliminated the Huskies from their lists of possible destinations.
Harris and Selby haven't spoken specifically about why they eliminated UConn. But it's common knowledge that some schools recruiting against the Huskies have stressed to prospects that Calhoun is a 67-year-old man who has battled cancer twice, and that he's coming off a season marred by the start of an ongoing NCAA investigation. Translation: "You can sign with UConn if you want, kid. But you don't really think you're going to be playing for Jim Calhoun once you get there, do you? He's on his way out."
Next thing you know, we have breaking news:
Calhoun, UConn in talks for new deal
Of course they are.
Which is not to suggest Calhoun and UConn aren't really in talks for a new deal; I'm certain the story is true, and that a deal will get done. It's just that the timing -- only days after Harris and Selby eliminated UConn from contention/only a month or so before National Signing Day -- is awful convenient, and beyond that there's this: Contract extensions in college basketball rarely mean a damn thing.
That's the part most fail to realize.
The extensions aren't typically worth the news releases on which they're announced.
For instance, take a look at Penn State's release from Thursday: Penn State has extended the contract of Nittany Lion Basketball coach Ed DeChellis, adding three years to the extension he received in 2006. Tim Curley, Director of Athletics, announced that he and DeChellis have agreed on a contract replacing his current pact that will keep him at the helm of the Nittany Lion program through the 2013-14 season."
Sounds great, doesn't it?
The only problem is that I can assure you there's nothing in DeChellis' contract that will absolutely "keep him at the helm of the Nittany Lion program through the 2013-14 season." Sure, DeChellis might remain at Penn State that long; he certainly made progress last season. But this extension won't prevent him from leaving before 2014 if he wants to leave before 2014, and it won't keep Penn State from removing him before 2014 if it wants to remove him before 2014.
That's not how contracts work.
Furthermore, the buyout often remains the same when coaches are extended, in which case the extra years mean nothing. That's why the details of the contract are crucial. But most recruits don't know the details, and many wouldn't even think to ask about them. All they see is the headline on their favorite website or the blurb on the bottom of their television screen, and they assume that something significant has happened between the coach and school they're considering.
More likely, almost nothing has changed.
The coach will still stay until he wants to leave or is told to leave.
And some extension announced for PR purposes won't matter at all.
http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/story/12299756
Oct. 2, 2009
By Gary Parrish
CBSSports.com Senior Writer
Tell Gary your opinion!
What's the best sign that it's recruiting season?
Contract extensions, baby!
Penn State and Bowling Green each announced extensions Thursday, and earlier this week UConn leaked a story that Jim Calhoun is in discussions to remain with the Huskies forever and always (or something like that). The motives are as obvious as they are hilarious. I mean, seriously, can you think of one legitimate reason for a school to be hammering out an extension for a basketball coach in October?
No coach is on the verge of accepting another job.
No coach has one foot out the door.
Practice starts in two weeks.
So unless a coach is involved in a scandal, he's going to be coaching at the school where he currently resides. Thus, extensions are completely unnecessary, except for how they can help send a message to prospects (real or otherwise) that a particular school is committed to a particular coach (and vice versa) as November's National Signing Day draws near. That's why they're announced or leaked now, and the UConn story was the best. It made headlines just days after a pair of top 10 national recruits -- Tobias Harris and Josh Selby -- eliminated the Huskies from their lists of possible destinations.
Harris and Selby haven't spoken specifically about why they eliminated UConn. But it's common knowledge that some schools recruiting against the Huskies have stressed to prospects that Calhoun is a 67-year-old man who has battled cancer twice, and that he's coming off a season marred by the start of an ongoing NCAA investigation. Translation: "You can sign with UConn if you want, kid. But you don't really think you're going to be playing for Jim Calhoun once you get there, do you? He's on his way out."
Next thing you know, we have breaking news:
Calhoun, UConn in talks for new deal
Of course they are.
Which is not to suggest Calhoun and UConn aren't really in talks for a new deal; I'm certain the story is true, and that a deal will get done. It's just that the timing -- only days after Harris and Selby eliminated UConn from contention/only a month or so before National Signing Day -- is awful convenient, and beyond that there's this: Contract extensions in college basketball rarely mean a damn thing.
That's the part most fail to realize.
The extensions aren't typically worth the news releases on which they're announced.
For instance, take a look at Penn State's release from Thursday: Penn State has extended the contract of Nittany Lion Basketball coach Ed DeChellis, adding three years to the extension he received in 2006. Tim Curley, Director of Athletics, announced that he and DeChellis have agreed on a contract replacing his current pact that will keep him at the helm of the Nittany Lion program through the 2013-14 season."
Sounds great, doesn't it?
The only problem is that I can assure you there's nothing in DeChellis' contract that will absolutely "keep him at the helm of the Nittany Lion program through the 2013-14 season." Sure, DeChellis might remain at Penn State that long; he certainly made progress last season. But this extension won't prevent him from leaving before 2014 if he wants to leave before 2014, and it won't keep Penn State from removing him before 2014 if it wants to remove him before 2014.
That's not how contracts work.
Furthermore, the buyout often remains the same when coaches are extended, in which case the extra years mean nothing. That's why the details of the contract are crucial. But most recruits don't know the details, and many wouldn't even think to ask about them. All they see is the headline on their favorite website or the blurb on the bottom of their television screen, and they assume that something significant has happened between the coach and school they're considering.
More likely, almost nothing has changed.
The coach will still stay until he wants to leave or is told to leave.
And some extension announced for PR purposes won't matter at all.
http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/story/12299756
