The Music City Bowl

Minn. vs VA. Minn. only sold 2,200 ticket for the game.I bet there are a lot of empty seats for this barn burner.

 

Shoulda sent the stamp/phone card package to UVA too I guess.

 

but the bowl system is awesome guys. i cant wait til we get about 6 or 7 more bowl games in the next 2 years. wont that be exciting?

 

All they keep talking about is the Minn's coaches contract that comes up tomorrow and what will happen to his assistants. The guy wants 1.8 and the school is offering 1.5. Seems like he has a lot of balls asking for that much and only playing in the MCB.

 

are you serious about them adding more bowls or was that joke?

 

150 teams and 40 of them play in bowls each year.

 

And wouldn't Virginia or Minnesota lose money from that poor showing?

 

THe audio went out and the studio crew is having to do the pbp. Very weird.

 

Mason's future at U in doubt
If there's no deal by Saturday, coach won't be back
By John Shipley, St. Paul Pioneer Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The University of Minnesota will not officially set a deadline for Glen Mason to agree to a contract extension, but it doesn't take much to read between the lines.

If this thing isn't done by Saturday, the U and its football coach will part company.

"We do not want him coaching into next season without a renewal," university general counsel Mark Rotenberg said Wednesday night.
For all intents and purposes, next season starts after Friday's Music City Bowl game against Virginia in Nashville. Not only will that be the final game of 2005, the contracts for Mason's assistant coaches expire at midnight Saturday.

If there is no deal, the university will send letters officially terminating the assistants' contracts, then, in what would be a bizarre end to a bizarre negotiation, likely would part with Mason.

Mason's nine-year tenure has been largely successful. He raised the program from the dead but hasn't elevated it beyond the competitive stage since leading the Gophers to the Sun Bowl in 1999. He has an overall record of 58-49 and has led the team to three consecutive bowl victories, yet he has a losing record in the Big Ten and hasn't pried the Gophers out of the conference's second tier.

Still, it has been Minnesota's best run since Murray Warmath led the team to back-to-back Rose Bowls in 1960-61. But if the sides can't figure out how to make it work over the next two days, Mason's tenure will be over.

"We are not planning to prolong this past the end of the year," said Rotenberg, the U's chief negotiator in these contract talks.

Rotenberg had several conversations with Mason's agent, Neil Cornrich, on Wednesday, but the gap between the parties was not significantly bridged.

The university is offering a four-year extension worth more than $1.5 million a year with incentives; Mason seeks a deal in the neighborhood of $1.8 million plus incentives.

The sides will talk again this morning with hopes that something will bring them together, but it appears the U has placed its best offer on the table.

"It's disappointing," Rotenberg said. "He just hasn't said that three-letter word yet — yes. We can't do much now at this point but wait."

Between talks with Cornrich, Rotenberg spoke with school President Robert Bruininks and athletics director Joel Maturi by conference call Wednesday.

Neither Rotenberg nor Maturi will officially issue a deadline, but it appears the assistant coaches' contract situation has created one.

The school will not commit to paying this staff while there is the possibility that another one might soon be hired. And it will not go into 2006 with a coach not tied to a long-term deal. Mason has one year left on a seven-year extension signed in 1999. He was offered a four-year extension the day before Thanksgiving.

"Unfortunately," Rotenberg said, "that's the consequence of not getting to yes here. Obviously our athletic department cannot pay two completely different sets of football coaches."

Cornrich said Wednesday, "We continue to make progress, and the talks are still amicable," which indicates the sides are drawing closer. The question is, how much closer?

Mason, speaking after running his team through practice Wednesday morning, declined to comment on the situation. He has said all season he wants to stay at Minnesota, and Maturi says he wants him to. On Wednesday, Maturi said, "As long as those two things exist, there is hope."

Mason is making $1.43 million in guaranteed compensation this season; the U wants to replace some of that guaranteed money with incentives clauses that would add up to more overall money. University officials have said repeatedly there is only so much money the school can pay a coach with Mason's resume and that they want one incentive to be tied to ticket sales.

The football program brought in between $14 million and $15 million this season, about $6 million of which came from ticket sales, Maturi said.

The rest of the football team's earnings came in large part from the Big Ten's television contract with ABC/ESPN ($6.1 million) and bowl revenue from the conference's seven bowl games ($1.9 million). Maturi said total football expenditures are around $12 million, nearly one-fourth of the school's $52 million budget for its 25 intercollegiate sports programs.

 

Then again.....maybe not.