So, what about Gary Pinkel's contract extension:
It had all the makings a classic Missouri athletic department
public-relations snafu. One day after announcing that football Coach
Gary Pinkel had received a new contract that runs through 2011 and
guarantees him $1.3 million per year, Pinkel’s team lost 21-16 to Iowa
State, the worst team in the Big 12.
Jason Whitlock, in a scathing column, has this to say:
This whole ordeal is so Missouri, so
just-when-you-think-things-can’t-get-worse. The timing of Pinkel’s
contract extension was terrible. Why lock him up early? Did Toledo want
him back? Is he headed to Miami to replace Larry Coker? Was Blue
Springs South putting together a blockbuster offer?
Why wait? Let's use backwards induction with an eye from the middle of this past week before the ISU game. Your program plays KU in a week and a half. The MU squad has not beaten KU in the last 3 years and it's no secret that MU fans tend to discount all other games relative to KU. MU has shown a remarkable ability to allow nobody tailbacks to be Walter Paytons for a day. But KU has the Big XII's leading rusher, John Cornish, on their squad - and he has the ability, and possibly the opposing defense, to go Tony Sands* in Columbia. If the contract has already been signed and you wait until after the KU game and you lose the KU game, THAT's a huge public relations snafu. The safe thing to do is to announce it before the KU game.
That being said, you would like to announce the contract after a win. The game against ISU, on paper, looks to be a mismatch. But the paper doesn't take into account the weather (it will be cold and the Tigers play a spread offense with little semblance of anything that could be called smashmouth football) . The MU run defense has been shaky in Big XII play, to put it mildly. The Tigers' star defensive end, Brian Smith, is out for the season.
Moreover, the paper doesn't account for it being the second year in a row that the Tigers have been the opponents in a Gipper game (Mizzou lost to KSU in Bill Snyder's last game as coach of the Wildcats). This year, Mizzou plays well in the first quarter and, usually, in the fourth quarter. In between, they are inconsistent. If ISU has any kind of momentum, lady emotion will help propel it unless the Tigers show that ability to take the opponent's will to play away from them. I haven't seen that this year from the Tigers. On paper, the chances were not good for an ISU upset, but the weather and the Gipperness of the game greatly complicate things.
So, if you wait until after an ISU victory and you don't win, you have to wait until you beat KU... and that's not a forgone conclusion by any means. So Alden probably did the proper thing: he announced the contract before the ISU game.
Then there's always the recruiting angle.
...When asked if opposing coaches had used Pinkel’s short-term contract
status against him in recruiting, Alden said: "It’s important that you
give your staff, your coaches every tool that they need to be able to
assist them with regards to the operation of the program. We made the
decision that Gary is our guy. We believe in him and the things he’s
doing with the program. Certainly I think it’s beneficial to him when
you’re out there recruiting to have not only facilities but long-term
agreements, long-term commitments and stability."
As I said above, as an administrator, why wait? To minimize the costs, just git 'r done and announce it.
*See the section on "Individual Records" near the bottom.