Should We Renegotiate Wren’s Contract?

AustinFromUNT · November 17, 2017

After a successful first season in football we redid Seth’s contract, giving him a raise and an extension. Right now, Wren is making $375k/year. Lisa Campos, UTSA’s new AD just signed a contract for $375k/year. Should we redo Wren’s contract and give him an extension and/or a raise, or do you want to see more first?

letsgiveacheer · November 17, 2017

Only if he comes to our next football game.

dmaxel · November 17, 2017

Just because he's making $300k right now does not mean he isn't slated to get annual bumps to that number. You need to provide more details about the current contract before restating your question.

Ben Gooding · November 17, 2017

Just now, AustinFromUNT said:

After a successful first season in football we redid Seth’s contract, giving him a raise and an extension. Right now, Wren is making $300k/year. Lisa Campos, UTSA’s new AD just signed a contract for $375k/year. Should we redo Wren’s contract and give him an extension and/or a raise, or do you want to see more first?

Not yet. Not until many other things are properly funded and said funds and pushed into their designed locations. Then, he will be due a bump.

Aldo · November 17, 2017

2 minutes ago, dmaxel said:

Just because he's making $300k right now does not mean he isn't slated to get annual bumps to that number. You need to provide more details about the current contract before restating your question.

Good question.

Tappity tap and voila: http://www.dentonrc.com/sports/mean-green/2017/11/12/littrell-baker-earned-big-bonuses-weekend

(At least as bonuses are concerned)

AustinFromUNT · November 17, 2017

Update: I got the $300k number from USA Today, which hasn’t been updated.

http://www.dentonrc.com/sports/mean-green/2016/08/03/unts-new-ad-deal-richer-than-its-last

This article from @Brett Vito says his base salary is actually $375k. So I guess the question is kind of null, but still do you think we should renegotiate it?

dmaxel · November 17, 2017

1 minute ago, AustinFromUNT said:

Update: I got the $300k number from USA Today, which hasn’t been updated.

http://www.dentonrc.com/sports/mean-green/2016/08/03/unts-new-ad-deal-richer-than-its-last

This article from @Brett Vito says his base salary is actually $375k. So I guess the question is kind of null, but still do you think we should renegotiate it?

So this is the important part to answer the point I brought up:

Baker will receive retention bonuses on an escalating scale, beginning in 2019 when he will receive a $20,000 payment on Aug. 21. The bonus jumps to $30,000 in 2020 and $50,000 in 2021 on the same date in those years.

Ben Gooding · November 17, 2017

2 minutes ago, AustinFromUNT said:

Update: I got the $300k number from USA Today, which hasn’t been updated.

http://www.dentonrc.com/sports/mean-green/2016/08/03/unts-new-ad-deal-richer-than-its-last

This article from @Brett Vito says his base salary is actually $375k. So I guess the question is kind of null, but still do you think we should renegotiate it?

No. There are some pretty massive projects that aren't yet fully funded. Those are far and away a higher priority.

greenjoe · November 17, 2017

This is a silly question as it regards coaches and athletic department personnel...

Is an employee due a raise just because he or she does their job well ? Isn't that what incentive bonuses are for ? After all, we didn't hire anybody to fail. We hired them because they convinced someone that if they were hired they would do a good job.

Silly, I know.

Win.

GO MEAN GREEN

Harry · November 17, 2017

47 minutes ago, AustinFromUNT said:

After a successful first season in football we redid Seth’s contract, giving him a raise and an extension. Right now, Wren is making $375k/year. Lisa Campos, UTSA’s new AD just signed a contract for $375k/year. Should we redo Wren’s contract and give him an extension and/or a raise, or do you want to see more first?

If you want to keep him you damn well better. If a big enough school comes calling it probably won’t matter but we should at least keep him from being a low hanging fruit for the p5.

People need to understand, Wren was a hair away from being the AD at an SEC school. Believe me, after what has transpired here his name will be mentioned for job openings if not already.

We can take the historical route of let nature take its course OR we can be proactive and say let’s do everything in our means to keep this winner in our program for as long as we possibly can. Same thing applies to Littrell and in my opinion will soon apply to McCasland.

El Paso Eagle · November 17, 2017

1 hour ago, greenjoe said:

This is a silly question as it regards coaches and athletic department personnel...

Is an employee due a raise just because he or she does their job well ? Isn't that what incentive bonuses are for ? After all, we didn't hire anybody to fail. We hired them because they convinced someone that if they were hired they would do a good job.

Silly, I know.

Win.

GO MEAN GREEN

In this day and age it’s more about protecting your investment. Remember market value is what you can make on the open market not necessarily what your job should be paid. We need to make sure Wren and Seth at a minimum are at or next to the top in CUSA. In more and more cases you have to overpay to keep the wolves away from the door

GTWT · November 18, 2017

Please. Somebody else hire the man.

GrandGreen · November 18, 2017

Raising pay only keeps the little wolves from the door.

Green P1 · November 18, 2017

Hey... if he leaves we’ve still got Hank!!!

GrandGreen · November 18, 2017

Per 2016-17 USA Today numbers, Baker is already the second highest paid AD in CUSA behind believe or not the FIU AD. With Baker's bonus structure, he may be the highest paid.

shaft · November 18, 2017

Isn’t AD talk reserved for off season.

VideoEagle · November 18, 2017

52 minutes ago, shaft said:

Isn’t AD talk reserved for off season.

It should be! But, when we are successful we worry that someone will hire everyone in our athletic department. When we aren't successful we complain about everyone in the athletic department.

The University is FINALLY showing some support. If we lose someone, I think we will go get someone else. That said, we should do everything we can to show Wren we are happy with him and want him to stay. That's more than just salary - it's giving him support to do the things he want to do. That support does not happen everywhere else, so showing it here is a real plus. (That doesn't mean a salary bump every now and then.)

Venson · November 18, 2017

I personally would like to see a little more before renegotiating his contract. He gets enough bonuses right now. I think we need to better spend that money elsewhere. Like a replacement for NS when he leaves. Without an administration that believes in and supports athletics, it won't matter what AD we have, we won't be successful. We will need a Pres who can get that done.

outoftown · November 18, 2017

16 hours ago, AustinFromUNT said:

After a successful first season in football we redid Seth’s contract, giving him a raise and an extension. Right now, Wren is making $375k/year. Lisa Campos, UTSA’s new AD just signed a contract for $375k/year. Should we redo Wren’s contract and give him an extension and/or a raise, or do you want to see more first?

UNT kind of actually has to. The cost of losing him is much greater than people realize. There are clauses written into both the football and the basketball coaches, significantly reducing their buyout (read by almost half or so) if he leaves or gets fired. I hate those clauses because I think they are kind of a power play on Wrens and the coaches part to the detriment of the school.

But in any case UNT kind of has to up him to make sure they are not left with nothing to show for the current success. Right now, in a worst case scenario Baker gets lured away, and then UNT loses the best coach(es) for amounts of money that don't really make up for it

Edited November 18, 2017 by outoftown