Ford’s deal an overreaction
On Feb. 10 of this year, the Oklahoma State men’s basketball team was 14-9 overall, 3-6 in Big 12 play, the head coach was shouting f-bombs at his players, and several folks at OSU were tilting their heads, wondering if Travis Ford was the right hire.
Seven measly months later, the school is so enraptured with Ford, he now has a 10-year contract.
Ten years?
(Say and think what you will about former Cowboys coach Eddie Sutton, but the man returned OSU basketball to greatness, deserved twice as much pay as he ever got and never got close to being offered a 10-year deal.)
Before Ford arrived at Stillwater, he made $400,000 his final season at UMass. Starting this season, he’ll make $1.8 million with a guaranteed bump of at least $100,000 annually through the 2018-19 season. All this after going 23-12 and winning one NCAA Tournament game in his first season with the Cowboys.
Look, I’m all for giving a man his due, but is the 39-year-old Ford due this much this soon?
What if the Cowboys had knocked off Pittsburgh in the second round last season and advanced to the Sweet 16? Would Ford have broken the $2 million barrier and been given a lifetime contract?
Last season was the Cowboys’ first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2005, and for that Ford deserves credit. But so do his players, particuarly senior point guard Byron Eaton, who excelled at key moments down the stretch as OSU won nine of its final 12 games.
Ford’s new contract was an overreaction to what started in the football offices.
Basketball has a higher ceiling than football at OSU. Ford has a better chance at winning more conference or national championships than football does. There is really no debating this and Cowboys football coach Mike Gundy just signed a seven-year, $15.7 million deal.
If OSU is going to fork over big bucks for football coaches, yet the school has a greater chance for success in basketball, it had better offer at least as much to keep Ford on board. That’s precisely what happened, which is why Gundy and Ford will both make $1.8 million this season.
Ford now trails only Bill Self of Kansas ($3 million) and Rick Barnes of Texas ($2 million) in Big 12 coaching salaries. Meanwhile, Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel, who lost the South Regional final to eventual champion North Carolina last season, received a new deal in June, but will now make $300,000 less than Ford.
Ford was born, raised and played hoops in Kentucky and someday figures to be a candidate for the UK job, which he no doubt has used as leverage since the day he arrived in Stillwater.
To cover its asset, OSU bumped Ford’s buyout clause up from $1 million to $3 million. Doesn’t matter. If Kentucky wants Ford, it will get Ford.
Interestingly enough, the day Ford was hired at OSU (April 18, 2007), athletic director Mike Holder said he hoped Kentucky would someday want to hire Ford. “That’s a high-class problem to have,” Holder said that day.
Some prominent OSU boosters think Ford could win a national title coaching the Cowboys, and that might be true. But shouldn’t you offer that coach a 10-year contract after he wins the national title, not before?
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Comments
Thank you John, this is way to soon. Take care of the guy, but don’t go overboard. We took a chance on him and it paid off, but OSU would have had to pay him either way so a new contract happened way to fast.
If Joe Castigalone had done the same the article would say he is a visionary and proactively retaining rising stars in coaching. Rohde – roll this one up with the football story today and shove them both.
Rhode,
I agree with the last comment from John. Go cover OU and leave OSU alone. Your instate coverage really slants toward Norman.
Don’t kid yourself Rhode. Keep in mind that Travis did what he did with a short straw considering that not one of his recruits was a part of the team. I would imagine that a lot of the attention he is drawing insofar as salary increases has a lot to do with the caliber of players he’s bringing into the program. Unlike Eddie Sutton, who often won with less, Travis is proving to be a whale of a recruiter. The fact is, he may not have to be that good a coach with the kind of players he’s bringing into the program.
Keep in mind that OSU offered Bill Self a huge sum of money to come back and coach at OSU. Money isn’t a problem anymore, we are a privately funded university now. Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with the rise of OSU and the demise of OU. I think T. Boone should start up a Law School at OSU, and maybe even a Med School.
You see the thing is Eddie Sutton was one heck of a coach, but only a marginal recruiter. Eddie had a short fuse and a lot of star players didn’t want to play for Eddie; but the ones who did were better off for having done so. Eddie didn’t want a deep bench, he wanted eight or nine dedicated athletes. I say athletes because Eddie went for the athlete first and the basketball player second. Eddie would rather develop an athlete into a solid basketball player than to recruit the prima dona player. You had to have a lot of discipline to play Eddie Sutton’s style of basketball. Travis Ford, not so much. He’s up tempo, plays the way todays players like to play. He’s very similar in his coaching style to Bill Self at Kansas. Hey, I say if the bankers and boys on Wall Street can make money for nothing, why not college coaches. It’s all going South anyway! T. Boone is 81 years old, he doesn’t have time to wait for greatness at OSU. He’d like to see it happen in his lifetime. By gosh we’re getting there!
When will I learn to check the author of an article before I read it? I’ll try not to make that mistake again.
Same here Robert, I read the article before I saw who wrote it, also. They really should highlight editorials so misinformation doesn’t get confused with “real” news. Does this paper not know how stupid their articles sound? Sorry, I didn’t make it through the whole editorial, so don’t feel offended if it got better as it went along.
John-I have to disagree with some of your logic. Mike Holder has stated more than once that OSU thinks Ford is a rising star in the coaching profession. If they truly believe that, then the big raises and buyout are purely defensive measures for what they think Ford WILL produce in the future, not what he has done so far.
Granted, the $3 million buyout wouldn’t discourage UK, but provided he stays out of trouble with the NCAA, it looks like Calipari will be there a while. The $3 million may very well discourage other teams that might come calling in the next couple of years, say a solid ACC team like a Maryland or NC State, an SEC team like LSU or a Big East team like Pitt. If Ford wins like Holder thinks he’s going to, OSU will have to fend off more than just UK every April when the wheel starts to turn. I think Holder is just hedging his bets. If he waited until AFTER Ford won a championship, wouldn’t it be too late?
As far as comparing to Gundy’s salary, I think the message is that OSU is going to reward and try to retain it’s successful coaches, rather than let it be a stepping stone job. Gundy and Ford are probably winning at about the same level right now. A 9-4 record (69%) and good mid-level bowl game is probably about the equivalent of a 23-12 record (66%) and getting to the second round of the NCAA. Had Gundy gone 9-4 and to the Holiday Bowl after his first year, he probably would have gotten a raise and extension then as well.