Bennett’s deal draws attention
PULLMAN – Washington State University athletic director Jim Sterk indicated Tuesday that he would attempt to revise basketball coach Tony Bennett’s contract following the season, calling the idea “a no-brainer.”
The 37-year-old coach, 17-4 in his first season at the helm, has enjoyed surprising successes while carrying home the lightest paycheck of any Pac-10 coach. As a result, speculation that Bennett’s first season on the Palouse could be his last has been inevitable.
But Sterk confirmed that he wants to do everything in his power to make sure that his young coach doesn’t get away from him, and added that WSU President V. Lane Rawlins has also inquired about the situation.
“I’d love for him to grow old in Pullman,” Sterk said, breaking into a gentle laugh. “But you don’t know.”
No other schools have contacted Sterk to indicate an interest in talking to Bennett, although the athletic director acknowledged that he may receive such a call either later in the season or after its completion.
Bennett said he had no desire to discuss terms during the season, and it appears that he has not raised the issue of a possible departure with his assistant coaches or with his team.
“When the time’s right, Mr. Sterk and I will sit down and talk about it. But right now, we’re just focusing on the season,” Bennett said. “I like it here. This is a place that we’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ve worked hard to get it to a place where there’s some respectability. It’ll be a great challenge, but it would be fun to continue building on this.”
Bennett and his family recently moved into a house they built in Pullman, and his contract pays him $350,000 this year, with the amount of guaranteed compensation rising by $25,000 a year for the remainder of the five-year deal. Incentives in the contract will probably boost the total dollar value. (An NCAA tournament appearance, for instance, would result in a $12,500 bonus.)
But should other schools come calling, the price to pry Bennett from WSU is surprisingly low. Despite a strong bargaining position given Bennett’s lack of previous head coaching experience at this level, the buyout is just $50,000, a drop in the bucket for almost any BCS-conference program.
“There were no negotiations,” Sterk said of the current deal. “It was, ‘Fine, thank you.’ And he basically signed the contract. That’s kind of how he is. So I think as long as you treat him fair, that’s what we want to do.
“It’s a contract that’s obviously the lowest in the league, so it’s not a huge buyout from that standpoint. It was not really an issue. I think that’s more of a blueprint, standard contract than anything else.”
Just what Sterk and WSU could do to improve Bennett’s contract remains unknown. Sterk indicated he wouldn’t be as comfortable with a contract that extended longer than five years, although he suggested the possibility of a rolling five-year deal.
The most obvious change would be to the dollar value of the deal, but the program is not flush with cash to spend, and revisions might require some maneuvering. Sterk said that a closer examination of the incentive clauses might be one option.
“We can’t offer something we can’t provide,” he said. “It’s going to be realistic from that standpoint.”
Increased ticket revenue does not represent as much of a boon as one might think. Attendance has shot up this year as the Cougars have won games, but much of the difference has come from the student section, where all-season sports passes were already paid for in the fall. Sterk said the department might gain a couple of hundred thousand dollars from the added ticket sales, but nothing near the millions that have been suggested by some.
Still, the optimism surrounding the current season and the prospects for next season, with all but one scholarship player expected back, have at least one Cougar thinking that Bennett’s future is with WSU.
“I think everyone expects him to be around here for a while,” junior Robbie Cowgill said. “The Pac-10’s a great conference and I don’t know why you would want to build a program and then leave it right when it’s starting to experience a little success. He’s a great coach and he likes to be an underdog, and this is a great place to be the underdog just because of the location and resources. I don’t think he’s driven by materialistic things, stuff like that that other people might be and other people would expect him to be.
“He loves us and we love him, and I’m sure that he would want to be with us next year.”