Penn State's Bill O'Brien getting a raise
ESPN is reporting that Bill O'Brien is set to receive a $1 million raise, effective July 1st (LINK).
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Penn State Nittany Lions football coach Bill O'Brien is getting a $1 million pay raise after a successful debut in Happy Valley.
O'Brien's deal when he arrived in January 2012 called for a base salary of $950,000. That's going up to $1.9 million starting July 1, according to contract terms released Thursday by the school.
Counting compensation for radio and television work and a Nike contract, O'Brien's total deal this year would be worth more than $3.2 million.
One thing that confused me though, was this:
The base salary would go back down to $1.1 million in 2014 before a raise to $1.6 million in 2015.
Since his salary will go back down, is this really more of a bonus than a raise?
Regardless of your stance on the whole PSU issue, I think everyone can agree that he's done an admirable job of keeping the ship afloat in Happy Valley. Things are only going to get tougher though in the next few years. I think the raise is well-deserved, and it's apparent that PSU is willing to do whatever it takes to keep him on board. If they can keep him there through the worst of this mess, I think they'll make a quick return to the upper tier of the B1G, which has positive long-term implications for the rest of the conference.
This may be the funniest photo ever put on this board!
read the tea leaves...... hes gonna be heading back to the nfl after the next season or two. sounds like he negotiated the bonus, knowing hes gonna leave.
he was one of the "hot" coaching names this season after what he did so to me it seems more like penn state trying to keep him around longer by sweetening the deal.
CBSSports fills in a few details here (LINK).
This particular item is fairly interesting:
"His contract also has a new buyout should O'Brien decide to leave for the NFL. Essentially, if O'Brien leaves Penn State for an NFL job before his contract expires he'll have to pay the school his base salary for the current year multiplied by however many years remain on the contract. So if O'Brien leaves Penn State for the NFL in 2015 his buyout would be $3,301,988 ($1,650,994 base salary in 2015 multiplied by two for the remaining years on the deal)."
The link to PSU's public site, including the contract amendments, is here (LINK). This includes information on O'Brien's automobile stipend and his $350,000 from the Nike deal with PSU as well as his performance incentive scheme (11% of base salary bonus for getting to a bowl, for example).
I think it was in the ballpark of $10M on his original contract and $20M after the extension.
I am sure the bowl incentive is what put the deal over the top.
I'm hoping he doesn't leave. Having a coach of this caliber is great for the conference, and his recruiting abilities would skyrocket post-sanctions were he to string together some 7-9 win seasons. He could really give UM and OSU a serious threat for conference titles in 4-5 years. But I see very few scenarios in which he doesn't leave for the NFL.
Fortunately, it doesn't look like he's going to leave for just any team opening. Penn State fans have to hope that guys like Belichek, Harbaugh, etc. plan on sticking around for a long time, and that O'Brien can build up a good, strong team fast. It'd make it a lot harder for him to leave if he started fielding top-15, or even top-10 teams right after the sanctions finish.
Megatron, Stafford, Bush...he would have a nice base of offensive talent to work with. If everything goes according what we expect O'Brien could be in Detroit in 2014.
He had a good year in trying circumstances, and certainly his work with their QB, whose name escapes me, was impressive, but I'm not ready to annoint him as a great coach yet. He had one win last year that was truly impressive (their comeback against Northwestern) and was coaching in a historically bad Big 10. Let's see how he does the next few years, though he will, to be sure, be coaching at a tremendous disadvantage.
I really hope he stays. It'd be nice to see him weather that storm and still put out quality football teams the next few years. Hopefully he will be long enough to bring a national championship to Happy Valley.
Wholeheartedly agree with this. I hate PSU more than ND, OSU and MSU combined.
examples of "consistently belligerent behavior by the University's ... leadership" since November 11, 2011.
The school isn't party to any of the various lawsuits vs. the NCAA. Even if the alumni vote in 9 JoeBots like Anthony Lubrano to the PSU Board of Trustees, they still won't be close to enough to be that powerful a bloc on the PSU Board (which has 36 members, arugbly that's way too many for an effective Board but that's a whole other discussion).
What happened prior to November 11, 2011 can't be undone, of course. But I do think leadership's behavior since that date is a prime reason why PSU was NOT dumped from the Big Ten last summer (if you got a B1G President in a candid off-the-record moment, they'd probably admit that).
I hope (and think it's fair) that PSU's leadership can be judged and considered on a before scandal/after scandal basis.
We'll get a sense of who PSU's leadership's truly is if/when the Paterno lawsuit is thrown out of court (because none of the plantiffs have any standing against the NCAA).
Then, the Paternos and their followers will need to decide a "next step" --- I'll bet $1,000,000 internet dollars that it is a direct lawsuit of Freeh and Penn State University.
Anyone party to these lawsuits is NOT "Penn State leadership." Not even close. They're just a bunch of people who can't come to grips with what happened and have a bone to pick with the people who have made generally CORRECT decisions from November 2011 onwards.
The penalties haven't really started to take their toll on PSU yet, in a couple of years the lack of scholarships will start adding up. BOB did a good job with the players he had, but eventually a lack of bodies will catch up to any program.
if they can keep him around and he makes that team successful enough that people show up (by people I mean fans/recruits/the media paying any attention to them).
When does he get a statue?
With the money they're giving out to mediocre coaches today, he deserves the extra dong just for the job he did there last year and in the process picking up a qb this season that could lead them back to the upper echelon. Well deserved, imo.
If O'Brien were to stick at PSU, the divisional alignment would get super lop-sided with M, Ohio, and PSU all in the same division. I'm not convinced Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Iowa can continue to be relevant with decidedly mediocre recruiting
They'll have a 50-50 shot at a B1G championship every single year. Things can happen. It's not all bad for them.
If he stays at PSU long term, he's going to build a beast. The B1G East will have some exciting times ahead, like the SEC East of the '90s.
I don't think he will stay long term, if he's able to at least keep PSU respectable for the next two years, the NFL will come calling and it'll look something like this.
I hope Scrooge McDuck held onto all that gold. He was getting about $450 per ounce in 1987. Today he's at $1,275 per ounce. If he was the richest duck in the world in 1987, just imagine what he's like now. I bet Scrooge McDuck pulls some serious boy band ass.
http://www.coacheshotseat.com/SalariesNFLCoaches.htm
and he has no ties/ reason to be @ PSU. Unless he's in love with central PA, he's going to the NFL when a team he wants to go to opens up.
Regardless of your stance on the whole PSU issue, I think everyone can agree that he's done an admirable job of keeping the ship afloat in Happy Valley.It's WAY too early to make that determination. The effect of the sanctions have barely begun to take their toll. I agree with a few other posters here that this just sounds like a carrot to ensure retaining him for a few more seasons. PSU's situation gets orders of magnitude worse if O'Brien reads the writing on the wall and heads for greener pastures. Penn State knows it, and I'm sure O'Brien knows it.