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For those who are curious...

The Charleston Daily Mail Wrote:Contract protects WVU, Stewart
By Mike Casazza
Daily Mail sports writer
September 22, 2008

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- WVU Coach Bill Stewart's six-year contract contains two buyout clauses that protect each side from early termination as well as language to prevent any chaos similar to that which ensued following Rich Rodriguez's resignation.

The Daily Mail obtained the contract last week through the Freedom of Information act.

Click here for a copy of Stewart's contract

Stewart, who succeeded Rodriguez Jan. 3, signed the contract Sept. 10.

Stewart did not have an agent in the process and involved his attorney only to review the agreement.

If Stewart resigns and stays out of coaching, there is no penalty. However, WVU must pay Stewart if it fires him without cause and Stewart must pay WVU if he resigns to accept another job.

If Stewart is fired "for convenience" - meaning that WVU lets him go simply because it wants to hire a new coach -- he is to be paid a prorated sum of $850,000 for every year remaining on the contract.

If Stewart leaves early "to take a position in any capacity relating to a football program at a Division I school or professional team" he is to pay WVU $1 million.

In either buyout, the money must be paid in three installments -- one-third within 30 days of termination, one-third within a year and one-third within two years.

The contract also addresses the mess Rodriguez created with his exit.

If Stewart leaves WVU for another Division I or professional job, he cannot in the next year "personally contact or otherwise seek to recruit any high school student or transfer prospective student athlete ... previously contacted or recruited by the University."

At the time of his resignation, Rodriguez was recruiting current Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor and told Pryor that he was taking the Michigan job even before he told his own team.

He also recruited a handful of WVU commitments and prospects, including WVU offensive guard Josh Jenkins.

Cell phone records showed Rodriguez used his WVU cell phone to contact other recruits and he allegedly shredded personnel documents as he was moving out of his office. The contract seeks to prevent that from happening again.

Upon the termination of the contract, either by Stewart or WVU, Stewart is obligated to give WVU all "materials or articles of information, including without limitation, keys, key cards, cell phones, computers, equipment, parking passes, automobiles, personnel records, recruiting records, team information, video, statistics or any other material documents, correspondence, or other data furnished to the Coach by the University or developed by the Coach."

Deputy Athletic Director Mike Parsons said contracts for the assistant coaches are nearly finished and that extra time was needed to properly package the two-year deals WVU has never used before.

Stewart is to be paid $150,000 in base salary, a figure that cannot decrease over the contract's term, plus $550,000 in supplemental compensation. That sum increases $50,000 every year and can go up by an additional $50,000 every year after a Bowl Championship Series victory.

Stewart also receives a $100,000 retention incentive for remaining the head coach every Sept. 1.

In all, the contract is worth no less than $5,450,000 if completed, though it will certainly go well above that sum. Stewart is eligible for a list of incentives as well as money he receives for appearances and speaking engagements and net income from camps.

This stands out:

"If WVU lets him go simply because it wants to hire a new coach -- he is to be paid a prorated sum of $850,000 for every year remaining on the contract."

WOW! What a great deal for Stewart. If WVU fires him next year, he gets $3.3 million. Sheesh!

That's life in the spotlight. What're ya gonna do?

IMO, West Virginia let themselves get taken pretty good there. Stewart is a totally unproven commodity as a head coach. The firing-buyout clause should have been a flat $850,000, rather than $850,000 per-year remaining on the contract. If WVU had proposed that, what would Stewart have said, no? It's not like other big-time schools were competing for his services and offering better.

If Stewart flames out badly and it's apparent after next year that he has to go, that $3.3 million will make it very difficult for WVU to lay out the big bucks needed to acquire a proven, big-time coach.

And Leavitt was a known quantity when USF hired him to build a program from scratch?

bitcruncher Wrote:And Leavitt was a known quantity when USF hired him to build a program from scratch?

Totally different situation. WVU is a leader of a BCS conference with 2 BCS bowl wins and top 10 finishes in the past 3 years. In 1997, USF was a speck on the college football map.

i don't know if Leavitt had a firing clause that would have paid him for years and years of unrendered service. But even if so, precisely because USF was a brand-new, small-time (Iaa) program, the dollar investment lost by firing him and eating it would have been minimal.

$3.3 million ain't minimal.

It's all part of the cost of doing business as a BCS confernce school...

Buy in haste, repent at leasure

A Syracuse fan talks about repenting?

There isn't a program in all of college football that would be interested in hiring Bill Stewart to be their head coach, so there's really no need to lock him up for 6 years. This isn't Nick Saban or Pete Carroll we're talking about.

MichaelSavage Wrote:There isn't a program in all of college football that would be interested in hiring Bill Stewart to be their head coach, so there's really no need to lock him up for 6 years. This isn't Nick Saban or Pete Carroll we're talking about.

I agree 100% about not giving him the 6 year contract. I don't understand this deal at all. IMO Stewart earned a chance to prove himself for two years. If things didn't work out then let's move on to to younger blood that were also part of the discussion when RR bolted. I guess I also had the misguided impression that Stewart knew he only had a few years to prove himself.

6 years and a 850,000 buyout, nice deal for Stewart.

Here's an update on the contract situation that wasn't originally disclosed. There is a $1 million buyout clause in the contract...

The Charleston Gazette Wrote:A closer look at Stewart's contract
By Mitch Vingle
Sports Editor
September 24, 2008

THE TERMS of WVU football coach Bill Stewart's contract has been quite a topic of conversation lately.

Of course, there's plenty of reason for it. The coach's contract was just finalized. Stewart's Mountaineers have been losing. The picture hasn't been pretty, and West Virginia fans are upset. The natural knee-jerk question for them to ask is, Hey, how much cash will it take to buy out the guy's contract?

The pact, however, is under scrutiny more than one would expect in such a situation.

A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story on Tuesday said "some Board of Governors members and donors are surprised and angry'' the recently signed deal included an extra year as well as a "previously off-the-table buyout clause."

Well, according to WVU athletic officials, the Board members should be anything but upset over the added buyout clause.

"The buyout clause was reinserted," said West Virginia athletic director Ed Pastilong, "to protect the university.''

Here's the deal: If Stewart leaves during the length of the contract and takes another coaching job, he'll owe WVU $1 million because of the added clause. Before the final draft was recently signed, he would have owed nothing.

"Other than reinserting the damage clause to protect the university," Pastilong said, "the contract is pretty much the same as what was agreed to in January.''

If Stewart is fired before Jan. 3, he'll be owed $4.125 million by the university. (We'll get to that later.) The $1 million buyout clause, though, doesn't come into play. The clause is set up to protect WVU, not the coach.

Where there may be cause for an uproar, especially if you're not a Stewart fan, is the length of the deal.

Initially, WVU gave the coach a five-year contract. That seems like a lot for an assistant who didn't have a lot on his resume. For one who didn't need to rebuild the program, just keep it chugging along.

Then, surprisingly, when the signed contract details were released, it was revealed the pact had moved from a five-year deal to six years.

That, said Pastilong, goes back to the buyout clause.

When Stewart signed his term sheet back on Jan. 3, a sheet fashioned by the university president's office, it included the $1 million termination clause.

Then-WVU president Mike Garrison, however, wanted the clause out.

"He told me to remove it," said Pastilong. "He did not believe in damage clauses.''

Garrison confirmed that to the Post-Gazette, saying he "really wanted to get away from those."

So the clause was scratched from the term sheet and initialed by Pastilong.

After Garrison left office, though, WVU wanted the clause back in place. Pastilong said his associate AD, Mike Parsons, and university general counsel attorneys Mary Roberta Brandt and Gary Furbee were working with Stewart's attorney, Stan Hostler.

"We asked if we could reintroduce the [$1 million clause] and [Stewart] was receptive," Pastilong said. "We felt it was fair to make a tradeoff."

WVU got the clause; Stewart got another year on his contract.

It's a sweet deal for the coach, especially if the current collapse continues and he's ousted. But the odds of Stewart being fired after this season are roughly the same as the Mountaineers now winning a national title. (Before the season, by the way, those title odds were just 15-1 in Las Vegas.) WVU's athletic department has always had lots and lots of patience.

Wondering about the $4.125 million figure?

Well, Stewart's contract is structured differently than that of his predecessor, Rich Rodriguez. Instead of one side paying, say, $4 million if the agreement is broken in Year One, $2 million if broken in Year Two, etc., the sides agreed to a flat $825,000 per year figure.

Stewart's salary is scheduled to increase $50,000 per year (he started at $800,000 this season), but the $825,000 buyout figure will remain the same. So multiply that by five and you get the $4.125 million.

On this day, of course, it looks like the coach got the long end of the stick.

But if the collapse continues for the next year or two, the feeling from here is Stewart will move out rather than be moved out.

"This is my final job, period,'' he said back in January. "I'm never leaving West Virginia University. And if I'm not getting it done, I'll tell them. They won't have to tell me."

The feeling from here is he'd leave in a much more classy way than Rodriguez. A settlement would be hammered out. He'd be sent off graciously, a la Lloyd Carr at Michigan.

And those Board members, they'll be appeased.

Reach Mitch Vingle at 304-348-4827 or mitchvingle@wvgazette.com.

I don't think Stewart's contract is any problem, due to the nature of the man. He's not like Rodriguez, who only seems to care for himself. Stew really cares about WVU, and his players. It shows too...