Thoughts on Lane Kiffin leaving Tennessee; MLB players: lots of filing for arbitration and some deals
January 18, 2010
Thoughts on Lane Kiffin leaving Tennessee
This week after Lane Kiffin left Tennessee for the job at USC most of the commentary centered on the issue of Kiffin leaving the Volunteers after only one season there. More than one commentator said that schools should do something to stop a coach from leaving after one year and that there should be a rule to stop this type of thing. We won’t get into the ethics of leaving a school after one year, but we will discuss the contractual nature of it.
People are forgetting one thing- there is a reason that a coach has a representative negotiate a contract for him. And there is a reason that an athletic director at a school also has legal counsel assisting in the schools contract negotiations. It would make no sense at all to take away this right from a coach to have the terms of his or her contract negotiated. Did the Tennessee athletic director foresee a little more than a year ago that Pete Carroll would leave USC after the 2009 season? Probably not, but in every contract negotiation the obvious as well as the unforeseen should be taken into account.
Would Lane Kiffin still be at Tennessee if there had been a different buy-out provision in his contract? Let's say it would have cost Kiffin a few million dollars to leave after his first year with the Volunteers. Would that have made a difference? Well, we do know that Kiffin needed only to come up with $800,000. to leave Tennessee. In all likelihood USC will take care of that for him. Give credit to Kiffin's agent, Gary Uberstine, for making it relatively easy for Kiffin to able to leave after one year. On the other hand, the AD at Tennessee had every right to put a buy-out provision in the contract that made it more difficult for Kiffin to leave. For whatever reasons, that was not a part of the contract.
So, before people have a knee-jerk reaction to Lane Kiffin’s leaving Tennessee, lets not forget that everything is negotiable, and if schools want to avoid this type of scenario it is up to the schools to negotiate contract terms to keep it from happening.
MLB players file for arbitration
More than a hundred players have filed for salary arbitration, with hearings scheduled for the first three weeks of February. Of course the list of players is highlighted by San Francisco Giants' ace Tim Lincecum.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=Aqn1pZifk.G2ireYX2_fDJgRvLYF?slug=ap-arbitration&prov=ap&type=lgns
Meanwhile,
White Sox Avoid Arbitration with Jenks, Quentin
The Chicago White Sox on Saturday announced that they have agreed to terms on one-year contracts with closer Bobby Jenks and outfielder Carlos Quentin.
According to a news release from the White Sox, Jenks' deal is worth $7.5 million, while Quentin received a $3.2 million contract. The deals also allow the Sox to avoid arbitration with both players. So two less players have to go through the arbitration process this season. Over the next several days we should see several more deals reached similar to these.
Here's a link that provides a good summary of the week for American Needle v. NFL
http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/No-easy-pass-for-NFL-in-Supreme-Court.html
Thoughts on Lane Kiffin leaving Tennessee
This week after Lane Kiffin left Tennessee for the job at USC most of the commentary centered on the issue of Kiffin leaving the Volunteers after only one season there. More than one commentator said that schools should do something to stop a coach from leaving after one year and that there should be a rule to stop this type of thing. We won’t get into the ethics of leaving a school after one year, but we will discuss the contractual nature of it.
People are forgetting one thing- there is a reason that a coach has a representative negotiate a contract for him. And there is a reason that an athletic director at a school also has legal counsel assisting in the schools contract negotiations. It would make no sense at all to take away this right from a coach to have the terms of his or her contract negotiated. Did the Tennessee athletic director foresee a little more than a year ago that Pete Carroll would leave USC after the 2009 season? Probably not, but in every contract negotiation the obvious as well as the unforeseen should be taken into account.
Would Lane Kiffin still be at Tennessee if there had been a different buy-out provision in his contract? Let's say it would have cost Kiffin a few million dollars to leave after his first year with the Volunteers. Would that have made a difference? Well, we do know that Kiffin needed only to come up with $800,000. to leave Tennessee. In all likelihood USC will take care of that for him. Give credit to Kiffin's agent, Gary Uberstine, for making it relatively easy for Kiffin to able to leave after one year. On the other hand, the AD at Tennessee had every right to put a buy-out provision in the contract that made it more difficult for Kiffin to leave. For whatever reasons, that was not a part of the contract.
So, before people have a knee-jerk reaction to Lane Kiffin’s leaving Tennessee, lets not forget that everything is negotiable, and if schools want to avoid this type of scenario it is up to the schools to negotiate contract terms to keep it from happening.
MLB players file for arbitration
More than a hundred players have filed for salary arbitration, with hearings scheduled for the first three weeks of February. Of course the list of players is highlighted by San Francisco Giants' ace Tim Lincecum.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=Aqn1pZifk.G2ireYX2_fDJgRvLYF?slug=ap-arbitration&prov=ap&type=lgns
Meanwhile,
White Sox Avoid Arbitration with Jenks, Quentin
The Chicago White Sox on Saturday announced that they have agreed to terms on one-year contracts with closer Bobby Jenks and outfielder Carlos Quentin.
According to a news release from the White Sox, Jenks' deal is worth $7.5 million, while Quentin received a $3.2 million contract. The deals also allow the Sox to avoid arbitration with both players. So two less players have to go through the arbitration process this season. Over the next several days we should see several more deals reached similar to these.
Here's a link that provides a good summary of the week for American Needle v. NFL
http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/No-easy-pass-for-NFL-in-Supreme-Court.html
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