Thanks Cadaver....point I was making.
Brunswick....You're correct in your assessment, which shows how hard it is to win one at MSU.
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Pretty much none of that is true. There is nothing and never will be anything in writing because the schools that stand to take advantage of it one day potentially would never agree to it. So the commish might write some university president or athletic director a strongly worded letter....so what? If it reignites a failing program its the smallest of small prices to pay. Completely irrelevant.
I think it pretty much depends on "what's best for the conference"... for example, if Vandy had a badass coach and one of the big six was sucking hind teat, I think they'd look the other way because it'd likely help the conference as a whole...
we're all in this together, you see....
Hawaii may be a bigger threat. They just fired their coach. Let's see, Mullen has pocketed roughly what 18 mil since he's been here. Hell, Maegan may be ready to sit on the beach for a while. I think they could get by from here on out without wanting much.
Tennessee came after CDM after his first year at State. Slice stopped it. Don't know if it's a written rule, put into contracts by every school, or just something Slive took an active role in stopping, but it hasn't happened in a long, long time. I have a feeling most SEC HC contracts have a non-compete with other SEC schools. they do it for players transferring out. not sure why they wouldn't do it for coaches too.
Either way, if UGA wants him, have at it. I'll take Richt.
Richt got fired, or announced his retirement?
I can almost guarantee that's it's not a written rule (I'm thinking that wouldn't even be legal; I'm not sure how that's any different from what the Research triangle schools were accused of with professors).
To the extent it's an unwritten rule, it's only enforceable to the extent the commissioner has the juice to persuade schools to follow it. Slive did. Not sure if the new commissioner will or not. I suspect being at another SEC schools would be a tie breaker for most schools, but that the schools with the juice to poach another SEC coach will ultimately do it if they feel strongly that it's their best candidate.
As far as schools putting more strict buyout terms for coaches leaving for other SEC schools, you'd think that would be a no brainer, but the way Bjork got worked, UM obviously didn't do that with Freeze and they certainly had the bargaining power to do it with their first negotiation with him. But that may just be the same incompetence that allowed him to get worked by Sexton over the UF "offer" showing up in the initial negotiations.
I'd be interested to see if we have anything like that with Mullen. When we first hired him, I could see Byrne thinking we didn't have the juice to require that, and even though the job became more attractive for subsequent negotiations, Mullen also became much more attractive.
I would not want Richt. I think Rick is a good coach and would be a fairly "safe" pick. He could probably keep any SEC team other than Vandy in bowl games consistently, but I can't imagine he'd have any major success at another program, even if going to a new school rejuvenated him and he returned to his peak.
Stopped it how? Made a phone call with a polite request to not hire Mullen? Wrote a letter? Threatened to have them play at 11 AM every weekend? There's nothing Slive formally could have done to hurt UT financially or otherwise for hiring Mullen. If UT wanted Mullen to be the coach there and Mullen wanted to go there, thats where he'd be. Any university president or AD who would put the conference commisioner's request over the well being of their university and employer won't last very long in this league. That's also the first I've heard of any Mullen to UT talk ever, BTW.
All of this is exactly right.
All of this is more or less wrong. Norms are more powerful than you'd expect in associations like the SEC and associations where member/participants only feel constrained by the written rules do not remain associations for long. If Vandy has a coach that for one reason or another is widely believed to be the next Saban or Meyer and there's not really a comparable candidate out there, any SEC AD that can would go after him regardless of any blowback from other conference members. But that doesn't mean a real or perceived unwritten rule wouldn't carry a lot of weight.