Quite the dick move by Northern Illinois, making an unprecedented trip to a BCS bowl:
Dave Doeren, who took the NC State job shortly after winning the MAC title and one day before the Northern Illinois Huskies landed an Orange Bowl berth, forfeited his $100,000 BCS bonus because he’s not coaching the game, according to NIU spokesman Donna Turner.
NC State is increasing Doeren’s salary from $420,000 in 2012 to $1.8 million in 2013, but Doeren won’t get a bonus for leading NIU to an 12-1 record and spearheading the MAC’s first appearance in the BCS.
By pocketing the hundred large and getting a cool $750,000 from NC State, NIU’s managed to turn a small profit off Doeren’s last two years under contract. Nicely played, gentlemen. (Western Kentucky is taking notes.) Plus, technically, you can tell yourselves that you didn’t need ol’ Dave to get to that BCS game anyway. That’ll show him!
Meanwhile, instead of following the traditional route of allowing an assistant coach to handle the bowl game coaching responsibilities when the head coach leaves for another gig, Barry Alvarez has decided to haul his ass out of the AD’s office and coach Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl. Before you chalk that decision up to ego or spite, you might want to look at a more mundane reason, like needing to add a room to his house. Because Barry’s getting paid, dammit.
Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez will earn $118,500 for returning to the sidelines to coach the Badgers in the Rose Bowl and a win against Stanford will mean a $50,000 bonus.
The executive committee of the university Board of Regents on Tuesday agreed to the terms following the surprise departure last week of head coach Bret Bielema to take the same job at Arkansas.
Alvarez was Wisconsin’s coach from 1990 through 2005, a time when he won three Rose Bowl titles. The money for the coaching job will come out of Bielema’s $1 million buyout to be paid by Arkansas.
Using the buyout money to cover that is an especially nice touch. And I can’t help but be impressed by the committee’s rationale for the payment.
“Coach Alvarez has a one-of-a-kind skill set that the university needs to be successful — both in the Rose Bowl and in attracting the best coaching candidates in the search for someone to lead the Badgers’ football program going forward,” Ward said.
Yes, indeedy. Because nothing says “welcome, coaching candidates!” like paying the guy who wouldn’t give the head coach who just left enough compensation for his assistant coaches over a hundred grand to coach in a meaningless bowl game.
Get The Picture 
Rose Bowl? Meaningless? Blasphemy! You have offended the Rust Belt!
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I got no problem with keeping the 100k. Good on NIU.
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Don’t see the problem with what Northern Illinois is doing. By taking off for greener pastures without even fulfilling the terms of his contract, he’s officially released NIU from any obligation they have to him, has he not?
And no, I’m not blaming Doeren for taking a pretty good opportunity at N.C. State. But a guy who’s just tagged a 429% salary increase is not going to get a lot of sympathy from me about a $100K bonus he left on the table, particularly if all he had to do to get it was stick around for one more month and coach a BCS game.
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NIU’s getting a pretty good revenue increase from Doeren’s efforts, too, you know.
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Whether it’s true or not I heard Alvarez say on the Dan Patrick Show this week that the Wisconsin captains came and asked him to coach the Rose Bowl. Of course, he still could’ve stepped aside for one of the assistants or at least agreed to it pro bono. But perhaps he has his eye on something from Kay jewelers for Mrs. Alvarez this Christmas.
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I heard that interview too. Alvarez certainly didn’t try to hide how po’d he was about Arkansas taking his coach. Sounded like a guy who had just found out his wife was leaving him for another man.
Of course, Barry has a right to be upset. Arkansas doesn’t seem to care about observing any of the unwritten rules regarding hiring someone else’s coach. Kind of a rogue-y program these days.
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Perhaps he should use part of that windfall to buy a Harley for his old coach….. as a gesture of goodwill and all.
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Wisconsin should be glad he doesn’t shop at BVLGARI. 😉
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Ehhh… The devil could be in the details, but (based on what I just read) I’m not too torqued up about NIU keeping that money. In a perfect world, I would be, but…
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Gotta agree with the masses here. I don’t see it as a dick move as much as a contract language move. Looks like both parties got what they bargained for out of the deal.
Did Doren’s work get NIU great pub, extra cash, and a sweet(ish) bowl game? Sure. But let’s not pretend that Doren gave two craps about getting paid for doing so. Doren cared about coaching at a higher profile program. That he got NIU to the Orange Bowl is just noise. Getting to the GoDaddy.com bowl would have put him in the same position.
He’s getting paid and the school is making money on his contract. Should we feel NC State is the aggrieved party here?
As for Alvarez: Yeah, nice gig if you can get it.
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Seems like I remember hearing Alvarez’s name with the Donnan pryamid scheme. If so he may need the money.
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Yeah, if Doeren wanted the 100K he could have stayed to get it. Purely a financial decision.
Alvarez, on the other hand, is making a dick move. To accept, and get paid for, the bowl game HC gig undermines the authority and respect for the assistant coaches.
Gee, I wonder if he’ll refund his AD salary during the time he is coaching?
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I almost wonder who else would coach Wisconsin. The head coach and DC are both gone to Arky. The OC, LB and WR coach have only been there one season and the OL coach started mid year. No wonder the players went to Alvarez.
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There is a lot of dirtbaggery to go around, but I do not understand why there would be a tradition of not coaching your kids in their bowl game…I would think you want to close your great year out with that.
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On Barry: Being AD in the B1G is the world’s easiest job right now. Collect massive checks, don’t spend money on coaches, assistants, or facilities, and don’t worry about fielding consistent winners in multiple sports – B1G fans apparently don’t care about that sort of thing. Just make the uniforms look up to date and laundered when the volleyball team appears on the B1G network.
“Unique skill set” my butt. He just managed to lose the one coach in the B1G who has demonstrated an ability to field a nationally competitive team year in and year out – to a program that aspires to be, at best, second-best in the SEC West every once in awhile.
And he’s getting, in effect, a freaking six-figure Christmas bonus?
Is it just me, or are B1G BoTs a complete joke?
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Hey leave Barry alone, he has single handed made UGA a better bowl team. He won all but 3 the bowls that the Cheese Heads played in. Two of the 3 he lost was to good old UGA.
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And he bitched after every loss. He wouldn’t shake hands with Richt when Richt came back from a 23(?)-0 halftime score to make Alvarez lose by 1 point. In fact, I think it (come from behind) happened in both occasions. He already had a big hate on for the SEC; now he has a hardon to go with it. Poor bastard.
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Are you sure that wasn’t Joe Tiller of Purdue? We’ve played them twice in bowls in the last decade or so and went to OT in both games — the 2000 Outback was the bowl where we were down 25-0 but came back to win it with a field goal in OT. I recall some Purdue fans griping that there had been some bad calls against them in that game.
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