It appears that Bert’s buyout is going to be ginormous because somebody didn’t pay attention to the contract draft.
Bielema’s original contract in 2012 with UA listed a chart with buyout amounts and included language that the figures in the chart should be plugged into a formula. The contract extension in 2015 laid out a new chart with higher figures but maintained that “all other text, terms and conditions … shall remain the same and shall not be modified in any way by this First Amendment.”
The formula says to take the amount listed as the guaranty payment identified in the chart and to divide that by the number of months in the term of employment. The formula then says to take that amount and multiply it by the number of months remaining on the contract.
Under that formula, the Democrat-Gazette took the $15.4 million and divided it by 97 — the span of Bielema’s employment from Dec. 4, 2012, through the end of his most recent contract, Dec. 31, 2020. The newspaper then took that figure and multiplied by 37 — a rough figure that included the month of December 2017 and the remaining three years of Bielema’s contract. It totaled $5.87 million.
Bielema’s deal with the foundation includes the same chart as his contract extension but does not refer to the formula included in the original contract. [Emphasis added.]
That’s almost a $10 million oversight.
I keep telling you these people aren’t that sharp. But they care about football!
Why was Bielema under contract to the university and the foundation at the same time?
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I’m guessing he has/d a “personal services” contract with the foundation to up his total compensation package. I expect Arky limits what a state employee can be paid.
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Ouch!
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Jeepers.. I paid more attention in Contracts class than these knuckleheads..
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Arkys. They gave us Bill and Hillary. What more can I say?
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Truth
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Some embarrassed senior partner is throwing an associate under the bus as I type…
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Or maybe taking a gun to his own head. Lots of malpractice policies allow subrogation against the law firm these days.
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So, how much do they owe him?
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^This. I have read it ten times and still don’t know anymore than I did before I read the article.
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I don’t know who Bert’s agent is but guessing it is Sexton. In any event his agent is probably laughing his arse off right now.
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It isn’t Sexton, Bert’s agent is Neil Cornrich.
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Can you buy insurance against your lawyers not reading what they approve? Kind of like title insurance when you buy a new home?
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Malpractice insurance for the attorney, as there’s a distinct possibility that they end up being sued due to this oversight
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I’d take that case.
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Hey, I completely agree that coaches’ agents are criminally good at what they do and that it’s rarely met with sharp athletic directors. Thing is though, there’s so much money floating around it really doesn’t matter. Even $10mil is just a simple matter of cutting a check. We have yet to see something that actually hurts an sec athletic association.
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“coaches’ agents are criminally good”
There is nothing criminal about what the agents do. They openly represent their client’s interest in the negotiation of a contract. They negotiate against an institution that has a large staff and deep pockets for the best lawyers, but somehow they get the best of the Athletic Departments. That is incompetence on a level that should be a crime.
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Could universities be using help from their own law schools and business schools? That could account for the falloff in sharpness, I will take private over public any time.
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All of this to hire Chad Morris… what a whiff.
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