I am not looking to pick on just SEC coaches for this, I think coaches from many BCS conferences would voice similar displeasure ($ content). Still, it came from the SEC meeting.
A few coaches have concerns about the price gouging of nonconference games with some low and mid-majors wanting $80,000 to $100,000 for a guarantee game.
Price gouging is hardly what it is. It's called the free market. Considering the salaries of many SEC coaches -- and how they have happily played one job offer off of the other to get raises -- are a result of market forces they might be more understanding.
The SEC schools are hardly the only schools that have to pay that price range for guarantee games, that is games against patsies or low-risk opponents willing to play on the road for no return game. Even with a return game, if there is an opt-out, they will take it.
What bothers them, is that their athletic departments aren't as willing to pay that price -- and cut into the athletic department's desired profit margin from the game -- for a guarantee games. (Of course, if the coaches were willing to take a pay cut, maybe the profit margin and need for the money from guarantee games wouldn't be so important, and... okay, that's just being silly.) And the coaches and schools aren't willing to offer a return game or even a 2-for-1 deal. Some conferences like in the MAC have strongly encouraged their teams to limit the number of guarantee games and push for at least a 2-for-1. Further shrinking the number of potential patsy teams.
The pool of teams -- even with over 330 possible teams -- that are willing to go on the road for a guarantee game and are suitably weak enough (i.e., not from the Missouri Valley Conference) to not have a realistic chance at an upset is actually rather limited. Add in the fact that there are 73 teams just in the 6 major conferences plus the WAC, MWC, A-10 and MVC looking for some of those opponents.
What gives? I don't know, but it's interesting. It's one thing for a random site operator to choose independence over network affiliation as has happened at both Scout.com and competitor Rivals.com. But this is an entirely different animal when three affiliates of high-profile schools leave like that.
I first remember hearing about BuckNuts' departure and thinking: ok, that's interesting. Maybe they had an independent streak in them. But not long after that I began hearing rumors that two other top 10 programs would soon depart. Well, today is the day that rumor came to realization. Something is officially rotten in Denmark.
In his first 3 years of taking over a Georgetown program that had fallen hard and fast, John Thompson III took the Hoyas to the Sweet 16 last year and this year won the Big East Tournament and got to the Final Four. He has an excellent incoming recruiting class that includes two McDonald's All-Americans in Austin Freeman and Chris Wright. He was named coach of the Year by the National College Basketball Hall of Fame. Georgetown is back in the national scene. So, how come the Hoyas aren't paying him?
Thompson, who has two years left on his current deal, is paid $456,000 a season -- 11th among the Big East's 16 coaches and half as much as any other coach who has won a league title, much less made a Final Four appearance.
"I'm working on it," Georgetown president Jack DeGioia said quickly before exiting from further questioning after the team's annual awards dinner Wednesday night -- when a new contract was expected to be announced.
But time to work on it could be running out.
Asked whether it was safe to assume he would be back next season, Thompson responded with a somewhat shocking lack of certainty: "Next question."
Meanwhile, Rick Pitino is once again extended by Louisville. Even Mike Brey at Notre Dame gets yet another extension and raise just for finally making the NCAA Tournament after a 4 year gap. Brey has job security up until after the 2012-13 season, while Thompson is being paid on the cheap for only a couple more seasons.
It seems stupid that Georgetown is not in any rush to lock up the coach that once more made them relevant nationally. Really, they are playing a dumb game. If they piss off Thompson III to the point that he would leave, how do they think Big John will react? Not just that, Thompson's top two assistants are gone to head coaching jobs of their own. There is no obvious next choice.
"When you only have two years left in your contract in this business and someone approaches you with an attractive situation, I thought I owed it to myself and my family and my staff to explore it," Lutz said.
"It would have been at least a six year contract and perhaps longer. The nature of our business led me to do that."
Family also played some role in why he stayed. His mother is in the Charlotte area, and has been having health issues. Lutz, took an unusually honest approach to explaining why he looked at a job that would pay less -- the lack of job security he sees at Charlotte.
Lutz also sent an open letter to the media and fans of the 49ers, that Charlotte Observer sportswriter Jim Utter posted at his blog.
I am not a gambler by nature, but the bottom line is this. . . I AM ALL IN! PERIOD! I am not leaving any chips on the table. I am proud to be the basketball coach at Charlotte and I am all in. My family is all in. Our staff is all in. Our players are all in. And I am confident that our fans are going to join us and be all in as well.
For us, next season has already begun and we are ALL IN!
This still leaves a lot of questions about the Charlotte Athletic Department. The women's basketball coach just left for the Florida job. Lutz strongly looked at a job that would for less pay and prestige. There's still debate as to whether the school should move towards having a football program (love the t-shirts). There seems to be a growing rumbling that the school and the athletic department lacks a plan or any sort of vision for what it wants to be or do. Previously at Fanhouse: Something Rotten in Charlotte
Now, Gregg Marshall did leave Winthrop before -- for maybe 5 minutes -- but this time it looks serious. Not to mention for a lot more money than the time the College of Charleston called. Sorry, but until he signs and makes it through the first 48 hours or so, the whole deal has to be viewed as still tentative. That's what happens when you've backed out before.
Wichita State (assuming Marshall doesn't change his mind) probably got one of the better coaches from the mid-major ranks. If anything makes the argument that the Missouri Valley Conference has made it to at least A-10 or C-USA status of the late 90s, it's poaching smaller mid-major schools for their head coach. Congrats to Wichita State and the MVC for showing how serious they are about being a force in college basketball.
A conference's annual share is based on the number of teams in the tournament and how they fare over a six-year period. The SEC barely received five bids this season, but turned them into 14 units - the same number as the ACC produced with seven bids.
One unit is awarded for each tournament game in which a team participates, except the championship game. Each unit is worth $176,864 for this year's distribution, which covers the tournaments from 2001 to 2006.
In college football, the big-dollar BCS revenues are all but guaranteed to the BCS conferences.
The ACC could field a disastrous conference champion, but that champ's revenue is guaranteed for so much as making a BCS game. Essentially, that pesky performance thing doesn't matter, just making it to the game secures a prize. Obviously more earnings can be achieved if a conference can sneak in a second team, but the big $10 million plus paycheck is assured before the season commences.
This isn't remarkable news but I offer it up more as a contrast of the two revenue distribution systems at work for the biggest moneymaking sports in college athletics. Is one better and the other worse? Is either method fair? We report, you decide.
That's only part of the story, though. John Lopez, a Houston Chronicle sportswriter lays the blame on Gillispie's departure from A&M completely at the feet of A&M Athletic Director (AD) Bill Byrnes. While he opens as if Byrnes' moves could be brilliant, there is no doubt he sees Byrnes as an ego run wild.
There's a good mix of background history, and clearly Lopez is on the side of Gillispie on this one, but it isn't hard to turn it around and say that Byrnes had good reasons for a lot of what happened and that Gillispie's handling forced Byrnes' hand.
The story is that an intermediary/friend of Gillispie was being contacted by Arkansas as early as February. Gillispie wanted to maintain plausible deniability and focus on winning basketball games. He never encouraged or discouraged the contact, and he never told him of the circumventing contact. Byrnes found out anyways.
Well, the wild end to a week in coaching changes before Easter Weekend gave way to a very quiet weekend. Nothing happened. Nothing. No solid rumors or reported meetings.
The quiet from Arkansas and Texas A&M was almost disquieting. Still, there is some nervousness in Nebraska where Doc Sadler's name is now the popular rumor to fill either job.
Sadler, though, has denied any interest in jobs and the Nebraska Athletic Department has maintained that they have not been contacted by either school about interviewing him. Of course, Arkansas, has hired a search firm to help. That means the search firm can go back channels to gage interest by Sadler before Arkansas actually contacts Nebraska.
Don't worry, come Monday there should be plenty of new intrigue and rumors.
It's confusing when a coach that recruited players takes off for a new job. Especially when the recruited players haven't actually set foot on the campus yet. Having said that, K-State recruit Michael Beasley and his mom apparently don't talk nearly enough.
Beasley's mother, Fatima Smith, told The Kansas City Star on Saturday that he would honor his commitment.
"He's happy. He's satisfied," Smith told the Star. "We're just glad it turned out this way."
Smith said Dalonte Hill, who was promoted to associate head coach under new Wildcats head coach Frank Martin, was the key to Beasley going to Kansas State.
Beasley seemed to contradict his mother's remarks later Saturday.
"I haven't [asked to be released from Kansas State] yet," Beasley said after the Nike Hoop Summit game in Memphis, Tenn. However, it appeared he was unaware of the Wildcats' promotion of Martin, as he said, "I'm waiting to see who gets the job first.
"I haven't talked to [Huggins] yet. He had to do what was best for him, but he still didn't look out for his recruits. He supposedly had the best recruiting class in the nation, but he didn't look out for us."
Kind of scary that Beasley was completely unaware that K-State made coaching adjustments and promotions a full day later. Maybe he has his cell phone turned off as he prepared for the high school all-star game (Memphis recruit Derrick Rose has been rooming and working him). His "package deal" partner Dominique Sutton made early noise about some other schools, but that was before Assistant Coach Frank Martin was promoted and Dalonte Hill -- the primary recruiter for Beasley -- was promoted to Associate Head Coach.
At this point who knows for sure. If I were K-State, I wouldn't be sure of Beasley until he enrolls for that 1st semester of the 2007-08 season. And definitely don't count on him to finish that second semester of the year as soon as the season ends.
With the news/rumor that really should shock no one that Texas' Kevin Durant will enter the NBA Draft, aside from the fun of watching several NBA teams go into full tank mode, the questions start to move to what next at Texas? While Durant only staying one season at Texas was not unexpected when he signed, there is still some fallout from this decision.
Rick Barnes is clearly one of the best recruiters in college basketball. That isn't going to change. His coaching acumen, however, came under a lot closer scrutiny. With so many people watching Texas because of Durant, Barnes tactics and mis-use of Durant became obvious to a lot of people. That second round exit to USC really brought out the second guessers. It won't affect his status with the Texas Athletic Department, or his ability to parlay interest from other schools for more salary. No coach, though, likes to be considered a mediocre game-day coach. D.J. Augustin has said he's coming back to school, but the freshman point guard averaged 6.7 assists and over 14 points. The point guard class for this NBA draft has been described as exceptionally weak. With Durant making it known that he's leaving, there's a chance he could at least enter his name in the NBA draft to go through the process and see where he would go. Chad Ford at ESPN.com lists Augustin as the 4th best PG prospect this year (behind Conley, Lawson and Acie Law IV). If Mike Conley, Jr. (Ohio State) and Ty Lawson (UNC) both return to school for another year as reported, he would be the top underclassmen point guard in the draft. Both Durant and Augustin happened to be attending a San Antonio Spurs game together this past week. This becomes a more likely possibility if someone whispers in his ear about how Dominic James' draft stock has taken a hit after returning for his sophomore year.
The Texas recruiting class is a top-20 class with top-10 Center and Power Forward recruits in Gary Clint Johnson and Clint Gary Chapman. It's not clear that Barnes will use the scholarship Durant frees up this year. If Augustin even considers going pro, however, Barnes may have to make a move, as there is no one clearly ready to fill in that spot. It might really motivate Barnes to make a late run at Jai Lucas. Probably the best remaining uncommitted point guard.
With or without Durant and possibly Augustin, Texas will still be a pre-season top-25 team with talent like A.J. Abrams and a strong freshman class -- especially in the front court. Texas has talent and their performance in the Big XII the last few years give them the benefit of the doubt in the pre-season polls. Previously at Fanhouse: Report: Kevin Durant Will Declare for NBA Draft Next Week
I am not looking to pick on just SEC coaches for this, I think coaches from many BCS conferences would voice similar displeasure ($ content). Still, it came from the SEC meeting.
And by "love," I mean "money."
Charlotte (they're real sensitive about being called that as opposed to UNC-Charlotte) Basketball Head Coach Bobby 
Now, Gregg Marshall did leave Winthrop before -- for maybe 5 minutes -- but this time it looks serious. Not to mention for a lot more money than the time the College of Charleston called. Sorry, but until he signs and makes it through the first 48 hours or so, the whole deal has to be viewed as still tentative. That's what happens when you've backed out before.
It's looking like Mark 
Well, the wild end to a week in coaching changes before Easter Weekend gave way to a very quiet weekend. Nothing happened. Nothing. No solid rumors or reported meetings. 
It's confusing when a coach that recruited players takes off for a new job. Especially when the recruited players haven't actually set foot on the campus yet. Having said that, K-State recruit Michael 
