OT: Bielema only got a $600,000 raise

1.  When considering salary, its not just what you make this year, or throughout the life of the contract, but also where you start in negotiations for your next contract, so it can have a compounding effect throughout the rest of his career (assuming that he is successful).

2.  Money is not solely about standard of living issues, particularly at the upper income levels.  its also about how much you make and how that affects your standing (both in your own mind and in the minds of others) relative to your perceived peers - in this case call it major conference head coaches.  That's a personal value that may or may not matter to him, but it often is a large psychological factor. 

Keep in mind the cost of living... an extra $600K in Arkansas is like having an extra $1.2M anywhere else.  Think about it -- a nice meal there is going to the Shoney's and you don't even need to buy shirts or shoes if you live there! 

No coach is going to move anywhere voluntarily for the same dough, so a raise of this nature is the minimum I would have expected. The more relevant issue is whether Bielema is going to have a dramatically larger budget for assistants.

I still think this move reflects a basic desire to not have Alvarez as his boss any longer. Considering what seems to be common knowledge about Barry's personality, perhaps it's not surprising.

a $600k raise in these circumtances, while nice, makes it seem like money was not the primary motivation in him switching jobs and that other factors are driving this.

...would've taken it for the same salary.

Bielema's thinking that the only thing stopping him from being Saban is having ready access to a different level of talent with resources at a school that has forgotten about even putting up a pretense of caring about academics.

Bielema's style is based on My Guy Will Be Better Than Yours...so when that isn't the case, there's not way around it. So he's going for the 'Bama/LSU level player to try and man up his style.

Not sure the cash matters all that much here.

If it's about assistant money then Wisconsin just learned the same lesson Michigan did when Bill Martin wouldn't make a decent offer to Casteel - you get what you pay for.

So, Bielema left the school that gave him his "big break" for about 60% of what Arkansas was offering Les MIles.  I definitely think there was something happening behind the scenes there that Bielema didn't like.  

Then again, after the shit I've seem coaches take the last five years or so, and some of the stupid firings, I have definitely decided that no coach owes any school anything anymore.  A great example is FIU coach Mario Cristobal, who was a perfect fit for the community there and who turned down a couple of good offers, getting fired for one bad season. 

I'll bet he wishes he had bolted now.

I think pretty plainly that money is not the driving factor here, because I seriously doubt UW wouldn't have raised him $600K or more to keep him in Madison. I think he's just cruising for Petrino's sloppy seconds; the extra $600,000 is just for Harleys to put them on.

Yeah he got a 600K raise but what about the people on his staff? The SEC is known for paying the staff equally well so that they can get better assistant coaches. If you watched the press conference, he commented on how when he was at Wisconsin he took a pay cut so that he could pay his coaches more money since Wisconsin wasn't forking up the cash to get the guys he wanted. With the 600K bonus, I'm sure Arkansas will be forking over more cash to his assistances as well so that he doesn't have to take a pay cut. 

Is that Bielema had been sending Arkansas letters in September. September!! I mean the season barely started and he wasn't concerned with his current team at that time 

I'd hazard Meyer has a lot to do with Bielema's decision.  Bielema reacted least favorably toward his arrival to the BiG of any coach.  And perhaps staring into the future after a 5 loss season where this year's championship was only due to OSU's ban, things looked bleak.

What pisses me off is this will just make Ohio State's path that much easier given the only two viable teams PSU and UW in their division are going to be horrible, while UM has to slug it out with MSU, Neb, Iowa and NW.

Total horseshit.

There's no way the money was the deciding factor. No way Wisconsin wouldn't have come up with another 0.6 M to match. The money from endorsements and other considerations may be better in Arkansas, but I also strongly doubt that the side money is enough to be the deciding factor. 

Maybe he thinks the new job is a better launching pad to the NFL. Maybe he thinks he can't do it without Paul Chryst and either needs more assistant money (still not a slam dunk that Arkansas is an order of magnitude beyond Wisconsin there, but certainly it's conceivable) or thinks starting from scratch will be easier than dealing with Chryst's baggage. 

Maybe he had some personal stuff going on. Maybe he's always hated Alvarez. Maybe he doesn't like road-grader grind it out football. 

I don't think it's intimidation by Meyer or feeling hopeless agaginst M and OSU. Arkansas is not a job you take if you're uncomfortable with being a contender saddled with high expectations while still not the traditional powerhouse in a conference.

Maybe there were some boosters behind the scenes who are giving Bielema far more money, real estate, etc. than what we're seeing in the official contracts.

Hard to say. My best guess is it's a little bit of personal stuff and a lot of him just feeling that Arkansas is a better football school with a chance to put a better football product on the field.

As for the idea that $600k is a lot of money, to some people it is, and to some people it's really, really not. I have to think Bielema's in the really, really not category and at a point in life where the $0.6M/year is way, way down on his list of influences.

I get a massively RichRod vibe with this hire.