BRIAN CURTIS
Curtis is CSTV.com's Senior Writer and CSTV's football and basketball insider. E-mail
As the business of college football has grown, so too have the pressures of finding and hiring football coaches. CSTV.com examines this trend by looking at the new "kingmakers" in college football, in an exclusive seven part series, from agents to donors to administrators to search consultants to the media; they all play a role in determining who the next man ruling the sidelines on Saturday will be.
Jimmy Sexton saw a sleeping tiger.In 1999, he looked around the country and wondered why LSU was not a football powerhouse.After poring over previous NFL drafts, Sexton noted that Louisiana had almost as many draft picks as the mighty states of Florida, Texas and California.If only the state school in Louisiana could keep those blue chippers home.So it was no surprise that Sexton encouraged his client, Michigan State head coach Nick Saban, to take a hard look at the vacancy at LSU in 1999.The next thing MichiganState officials knew, they were looking for Saban's replacement.It didn't take long for the West Virginia native to turn LSU into a national power and for the NFL calls to start coming in, Sexton ran interference while conferring with his client.After winning the BCS Championship in 2003, Saban was the hottest name in college or pro football, with inquires from the Chicago Bears, New York Giants and Atlanta Falcons, among others.And so, almost a year later, on Christmas Day, 2004, Saban broke the hearts of Tiger faithful and bolted for a $4.5 million per year job as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins.
As you might expect, Sexton took some, but not all of the heat, directed at Nick "Satan."But that was okay.He was just doing his job.After two disappointing years with the Dolphins, going 15-17, Saban was willing to listen to an offer that would get him back to the college game, where he felt he, and his family, belonged.And one was waiting in the wings.Despite denials, tense press conference exchanges and the now infamous line, "I'm not going to be the coach at Alabama," Sexton helped negotiate Saban's move from Miami to Tuscaloosa.While bloggers and media critics were pounding Alabama on its inability to find a new head coach, Sexton was negotiating a whopping $32 million deal for Saban, setting the standard for all other coaching contracts.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Sexton was a suitemate of Reggie White in Knoxville.When the USFL enticed White with a million-dollar contract offer, Sexton became the go-between, and his sports agent career was launched.He signed a rising college basketball player out of a small school in Arkansas by the name of Scottie Pippen.His client roster grew and Athletic Resource Management was born in East Memphis.
"Agents are relatively new, especially in sports," says Sexton, "and coaching agents are an even more recent change, just in the last five to 10 years.My first coach was 13 years ago helping Tommy Tuberville go to Ole Miss."
Like most agents, Sexton is on the road more than 150 days each year and yet, for his coaching clients, he receives just 3-4 percent of the negotiated contract.Still, add up his commissions just in the last few years and now you are talking about real money.Sexton is one of a handful of agents who have made representing coaches a cornerstone of their business.In the college football world, there's also Ohio-based agent Neil Cornrich whose NS Sports represents the likes of Bob Stoops, Kirk Ferentz, Mark Mangino, Al Groh and Jim Leavitt among others.Other notable agents include IMG's Gary O'Hagan, who counts Mike Leach, Randy Edsall and Troy Calhoun among clients on the college level; Gary Uberstine out of Las Vegas who works with Pete Carroll; and Trace Armstrong, the newly appointed head of CAA Sports Coaches Division.
"For me, it's about not being intrusive," insists OhioState athletic director Gene Smith in talking about the role of agents. "For me, it's about talking to a coach.Agents can deal with our attorneys; I have people on my payroll who are lawyers.I won't talk to an agent, I don't do it."
Smith's colleague at Oklahoma, Joe Castiglione, shares a similar view.Castiglione, who oversaw the hiring of Bob Stoops, admits that many ADs simply will shut out candidates who rely too much on their agents."I have personally told prospective coaches to inform their agents that the conversations cannot be made public and, if it happens, they would most likely be eliminated from consideration."One athletic director at a major BCS conference school who wanted to remain anonymous says "many schools have been burned by agents."Why do some administrators have such distaste for agents?"When we were doing our search," the AD confides, "agents would call me all the time.They would ask me, `Why are you even considering this guy?My guy has done this.'"Most administrators, however, say things cross the line when agents go behind their backs to try to influence the decisions.
Dr. Bernie Machen took over as the President of the University of Florida in 2004, after stints at Utah, where he served as provost, and Michigan, where he was the Dean of the School of Dentistry.He is one of the more outspoken university executives and gained national exposure as a leading advocate of a college football playoff."At Florida, and previously when I was at Utah, we have a policy of not dealing with agents.We recognize that the top talent [coaches] have advisors.If a coach is smart, he'll look at the AD and President and see what the relationship can be.The personal relationship."Of course, Machen, or those on staff at Florida, do eventually deal with agents when it comes to fine tuning and reviewing contracts, like the $3 million-plus a year ones for Urban Meyer and Billy Donovan.At the University of Mississippi, a former NFL kicker is in charge, Chancellor Robert Khayat."As a seasoned veteran, I have seen athletics change.The commercialization, naturally, has produced a commercial structure.My preference would be to have a coach work directly with the AD or Chancellor, not through an agent."And at Nebraska, Chancellor Harvey Perlman adds, "More and more high profile coaches have agents.It makes the process more difficult, longer and not to the advantage of the program."
That's the public view from athletic directors and campus executives interviewed for this report, almost all critical of agents and the increasing role that they play.But there is another side to it all.
"There is a negative image of agents and representatives," says 42-year old Armstrong, a former NFL player with the Miami Dolphins and Oakland Raiders and past president of the NFL Players' Association."But like in any profession, there are people who do things the right way and the wrong way."
"Universities use lawyers to look at contracts so why shouldn't coaches use them to protect ourselves?" asks North CarolinaState head coach Tom O'Brien rhetorically.Tennessee's Phil Fulmer never had an agent before hiring Sexton a few years back.When the university hired a new President and changed the way his contract was constructed, the Board decided to change Fulmer's as well.And when he couldn't comprehend the legal jargon in the document given to him by athletic director Doug Dickey, he sought advice.
Chuck Neinas worked for the NCAA way back in the 1960s, before March Madness became, well, March Madness.After serving as the commissioner of the old Big Eight Conference, Neinas became Executive Director of the College Football Association, which helped bring the college game to televisions across America. As a search consultant, Neinas is often the go-between for schools and candidates and sees both sides of the equation.Agents are good at helping keep clients' names in play and in negotiating deals, Neinas points out, but he also acknowledges that in one search he was involved in, "the agent or representative actually cost his coach the job as the institution got frustrated with the agent."
NCAA President Myles Brand has no issue with coaches having agents but, ironically, does have a problem with universities who don't take the same precautions."Coaches have good advice through their representatives and agents, which, by the way, is perfectly fine.I think universities need to get good advice on contracts."Brand goes on to add, "Some universities do, some don't.There could be someone on campus, or they should hire an attorney who specializes in contract law for sports."
Gary O'Hagan started up IMG's coaching division in 2000.O'Hagan believes that agents are there to simplify the process, help coaches prepare for job interviews and send materials to interested schools.And, of course, protect their clients."These contracts are fairly complex and have significant legal ramifications," he adds.
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