More than money
Berry Tramel says Brad Underwood’s departure from OSU was about “value.”
ASTILL WATER — round 12:30 p.m. Friday, OSU led Michigan 52-46 in the second half of an NCAA Tournament game in Indianapolis, and the future of Cowboy basketball looked bright. Great players. Great coach. Great excitement. Great momentum.
Literally 27 hours later, the excitement is gone, the momentum has crashed and the future looks grim.
Brad Underwood is in Illinois and OSU fans are in despair, wondering how they can ever replace Underwood and why they lost him.
First, the easiest answer.
Illinois is a heck of a job.
OSU is a good job, too, but Illinois is a better job. Bigger state. Basketball state. Fertile recruiting grounds. More stable conference. Solid tradition.
Yes, OSU has two (1940s) NCAA titles and six Final Fours to Illinois’ no NCAA titles and five Final Fours, but the Illini trump the Cowboys, albeit barely, in the most telling metric, NCAA Tournament wins. Illinois is 40-31 in the NCAAs; OSU is 38-26.
But even more importantly, Underwood came to believe that Illinois valued basketball more than did OSU.
That’s from sources close to Underwood, who while admitting that money matters, pointed out that Underwood became disenchanted with athletic director Mike Holder’s negotiating statements, even to the point of feeling insulted.
Not all of it delved on the contract. Underwood’s salary was more than tripled upon being hired by OSU, from $300,000 at Stephen F. Austin to $1 million in Stillwater. Underwood wanted his salary more than tripled again, and Illinois did, agreeing to a six-year contract at more than $3 million per season.
That’s what Underwood wanted from OSU and what Holder couldn’t deliver. Heck, even if OSU had the money, that had to be a non-starter. The biggest mistake of Holder’s administration was the 10-year, $2.4 million-per-season extension he gave Travis Ford after a breakout 2008-09 season, Ford’s first year at OSU. That contract became an albatross around the entire athletic department.
No way could Holder go out on that kind of limb again. Sure, Underwood seemed like a sure thing. But so did Ford in March 2009.
“I told him, ‘Brad, we’re not adversaries in this,’” Holder said of their talks last week. “I want what’s best for you. All I ask, you think about the financial challenges I laid out for you, that I face, and I’ll do the same for you.”
But sources say any chance of a compromise on Underwood’s part were squelched Monday when during a meeting he felt insulted by Holder. The source said that Underwood was told by Holder that Ford won
more games in his first year than did Underwood and went on to make five NCAA Tournaments. The source said that Underwood was so angry he got up to leave the office at that point, though Holder convinced him to stay.
“I think that was really hurtful,” the source said. “I believe that was the dagger.”
If not, the dagger came a few minutes later. When discussing the value of OSU basketball on campus, the source said, Holder told Underwood he was asking for Final Four-type money and that the Cowboys currently are on a level of Iowa State, Texas Tech and Kansas State in the Big 12.
“He was going to Illinois the moment Holder said that to him,” the source said. “What he was looking for, Holder’s vision for the program, ‘I believe you can get us up to KU and Bill Self and blah-blah,’ and that just wasn’t what he heard.”
Then Illinois came calling, and athletic director Josh Whitman sold Underwood on how much the Illini value basketball, saying Illinois wants to have the top program in the nation. “What I just heard from my boss,” Underwood told the source, “we want a program about equal to Iowa State, Texas Tech and Kansas State.”
Some in the basketball office already were questioning Holder’s commitment to the sport, saying he wanted a Big 12 caliber program on a Missouri Valley Conference budget.
Of course, spending someone else’s money is easy. Spending the money for which you’re responsible is more difficult. Holder knows that money is tight around OSU hoops. An OSU source said basketball revenues are roughly half of what they were the previous decade.
Ironically, OSU basketball is financially on better ground than it was a year ago. The Cowboys this time last year owed Ford $7.2 million over three years, plus whatever they were going to pay a new coach.
OSU negotiated with Ford for a $3.9 million lump settlement, saving $600,000 in salary for the rest of that fiscal year. Now Illinois owes OSU $3 million for bagging Underwood.
So the net result is that OSU will have gotten out of a bad contract with Ford, with minimal financial damage. But with much program damage.
Holder played hardball and lost, and as a Cowboy fan said Sunday, OSU was just a shirt that Underwood wore. Now the Cowboys are without a coach and without much hope that the renaissance will last.