(03-14-2018 10:28 AM)mrbig Wrote:  edit: I went back and read a few of the old chron articles and blog posts to refresh my memory. Rice did pony up and signed him to an extension on a Tuesday (while he was simultaneously negotiating with Tulsa), but he seems to have used that to get a better offer from Tulsa and left on Thursday. He got $1.1 million per season from Tulsa, which one of the articles says is twice what his Rice extension paid and that Rice would not match it once he told them. Putting aside Todd Graham's personality, I am thrilled that Rice did not pay him $1.1 million per season in 2007. He wasn't that good of a coach and Rice didn't have that kind of money!

Responding to your edit (thanks for your diligence, Big, but then, I consider you to be in the minority of 10% of lawyers that are actually good at their jobs.)

My original post on this subject stated I was speculating. Please keep that in mind. No one can ever know with metaphysical certitude (to borrow an old JM phrase) what would or would not have happened. That's what sports boards are for! :)

I stated several times I don't defend the man or necessarily his tactics (I believe anyone should honor a contract--even a marriage oral contract, though it seems perfectly Okay and acceptable (even encouraged) in our society to violate that agreement, which seems infinitely worse than breaking Todd's little football coaching contract, but I digress). I do think he was a much better coach than we got afterwards, and would have done much better. And, as I posted above, I do think Rice could have turned the tables around on him and used his slimy negotiating tactics to publicly propel the school's program into a significantly better and more universally desirable position, then cut him loose and accomplished something more than we did, and come out smelling like a rose. Rice does not seem to have been that willing to think outside the box when it comes to sports and negotiations. "Unconventional wisdom?" It's just a slogan, not a philosophy it appears.