It's get-rich-quick time for bowl coaches
By Mike Fish
ESPN.com
Michigan coach Lloyd Carr can't win.
Florida's Urban Meyer won the campaign for a spot in the Tostitos BCS Championship Game over Carr and the just-as-deserving Michigan Wolverines. That's tough enough for Carr, who is as competitive as they come on the sidelines. But it gets worse. Meyer is in possession of a contract that contains enough post-season perks to make Carr green with envy, and those perks will all kick in come championship game time.
According to a review of contracts obtained by ESPN.com under state open records laws for many of the nation's top football-playing public schools, Carr's deal at Michigan has a provision that the university will pay him an additional two month's salary (totaling $127,500) for a BCS bowl bid -- in this case, the Rose Bowl presented by Citi -- and also includes a vague clause that says the university has the discretion to award another unspecified bonus if he leads Michigan to the national title game.
That $127,500 isn't bad, of course, but it doesn't measure up very favorably to the windfall Meyer is about to enjoy. And the controversial BCS standings deprived Carr of that extra discretionary money.
At Florida, Meyer's successful late-season stumping earned him a bonus of $150,000 for appearing in the championship game, to go along with the $75,000 he pocketed for the SEC title and another $50,000 for an almost certain final ranking in the Top 10. And Meyer gets another guaranteed $100,000 if the Gators beat Ohio State to win the national title on Jan. 8.
Oh, and if Florida wins, you can bank on the folks in Gainesville jumping on yet another clause in Meyer's contract that gives him the right to open a review of the "adequacy" of his contract after the 2007 season.
If Carr were a spiteful man, he'd have the right to be a little envious.
LINK:
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/bowls06/n ... id=2698799
