UA’s Financial Resources Key in Attracting New Football Coach

Bret Bielema shocked many in the college football world on Tuesday when he agreed to leave a Wisconsin program Rose Bowl-bound for the third consecutive year to become the head coach at Arkansas, which had toiled amid turmoil for the past eight months.

Bielema said he did so to chase a dream.

“We’ll take it one game at a time and I’m not going to promise anything,” Bielema said, “but I will tell you I’m here because I want to give you something you’ve never had.”

Bielema later clarified that means a Southeastern Conference championship, the inference being that if Arkansas wins that title, a shot at a national one is all but guaranteed. SEC teams have won the last six Bowl Championship Series titles, and Alabama will try to make it seven when it faces Notre Dame on Jan. 7.

What became apparent at Wednesday’s formal introduction of Bielema, 42, as the Razorbacks’ coach is that he will do so with far more financial support than he received at Wisconsin. In addition to getting an annual raise from $2.6 million to $3.2 million, Bielema also is expected to benefit from the construction of a $40 million-plus football operations center and a recently deepened salary pool for assistant coaches.

Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long left little doubt money played a big part in the recruitment and hiring of Bielema, who went 68-24 in seven seasons at Wisconsin.

“I think we sold that we’ve put our university, our athletic program, in position be able to go out and recruit a sitting head coach in a BCS conference,” Long said. “We’ve done that over the last five years with the help of the Razorback Foundation and all of our staff. So financial resources were key to this recruiting effort and we knew it would be key to attracting an assistant coaching group as well.

“Resources are obviously very important, because you heard Coach Bielema talk about some of the things he wasn’t able to do at Wisconsin. This brought him an opportunity to do that and we’re very excited about it.”

Bielema said he repeatedly lost assistant coaches to higher salaries at other schools.

“I know I’m hiring the right guys because everybody keeps taking them from me,” he said.

Three assistant coaches left Wisconsin after the 2011 season, Bielema said, and another three approached him about raises after Saturday’s Big 10 Championship Game victory over Nebraska.

“They were talking money that I can’t bring them at Wisconsin,” Bielema said. “Wisconsin isn’t wired to do that at this point.

“I just felt for me … for what I want to accomplish in the world of college football, I needed to have that ability to do that. Thankfully, I’ve found that here at Arkansas.”

No decisions regarding his staff have been made, Bielema said, but he will go about putting it together with ample resources.

“I can tell you this: The staff I’m going to assemble is going to be second to none, and it’s going to be that way because of the support I’ve got from the administration,” he said.

Long acknowledged Arkansas’ salary pool for assistants will be more than in past years, but also said Bielema “doesn’t want to just go pay somebody the money because he has the money to pay it, which means a lot to me because I am protective of our resources.”

Arkansas announced earlier in the day it had agreed on a six-year deal that will pay Bielema $3.2 million annually. Former coach Bobby Petrino signed a seven-year extension in 2010 that paid him $3.56 million annually.

Petrino was fired in April in the wake of a scandal that involved former UA volleyball player and athletic department employee Jessica Dorrell. His replacement, John L. Smith, was given a 10-month contract worth $850,000.

Arkansas went 4-8 under Smith after being ranked in the top 10 in most preseason polls. Smith was reassigned as a consultant after the season ended, and will fill that role until his contract expires in February.

Arkansas also confirmed it will pay a $1 million buyout to Wisconsin. That fact was part of a 14-page “offer letter” between the UA and Bielema.

According to the document, Bielema also can earn up to $700,000 annually in performance-based incentives. The letter outlines other perks like country club memberships and the use of two automobiles, as well as buyout parameters should either the UA or Bielema sever the agreement.

If Arkansas terminates the agreement “for convenience,” it will pay Bielema an amount between $3.2 million and $12.8 million, depending on when the action is taken. If Bielema terminates the agreement “for convenience,” he will pay the university an amount between $500,000 and $3 million, depending on when the action is taken. Under the agreement, Bielema also is prohibited from leaving Arkansas for another SEC school.

The letter will be superseded by an official employment agreement once it is completed. The letter states the UA will make every effort to draft and execute an official agreement within 90 days of Bielema’s start date.

Bielema’s hiring comes on the heels of the UA’s recent announcement it is exploring the idea of expanding its 72,000-seat Reynolds Razorback Stadium. That football ops center, which could open in June, is part of a larger master plan for facility upgrades that spans 20 to 30 years at a projected cost of $320 million.

“We have passionate supporters, financially,” Bielema said. “That’s very, very apparent to me through the buildings I’m seeing constructed and the things that are available to us, that they’re passionate about financially supporting us, which I’m very thankful for.”