Daily briefing: On carousel finances, Mark Stoops’ payday and Jim Harbaugh’s largesse

Ivan Maisel’s “Daily Briefing” for On3:

Financial factors on the coaching carousel

While the USCs and the LSUs of the world poach big-name coaches, the Texas Techs (Joey McGuire) and Virginia Techs (Brent Pry) pluck top assistants and give them a chance at the big time. It could be that it’s nothing more than a coincidence. But you can’t help but wonder if another line of demarcation between have and have-not is being drawn. All four are Power 5 schools. And yet USC (market) and LSU (conference) pull in more revenue than the two Techs. We’ve seen the Red Raiders and the Hokies win before. Here’s hoping McGuire and Pry are the right guys for their jobs, and not just the ones that the programs could afford.

Mark Stoops stays put, gets paid anyway

More coaching carousel fallout: Kentucky coach Mark Stoops joined Mel Tucker of Michigan State and James Franklin of Penn State in the Not Hired/Won Anyway category. Kentucky agreed to give Stoops a new six-year contract that will take the coach with the second-longest tenure in the SEC (nine seasons) to age 60. Just as brother Bob did at Oklahoma, Mark Stoops is benefitting from having a long-term athletic director (Mitch Barnhart) and long-term president (Eli Capilouto). I can’t tell you how much interest other schools had in Stoops, but give him credit for understanding the benefit of staying on the same horse on the coaching carousel.

All hail Jim Harbaugh

How much money is enough? I think Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh told us Monday night. He said on his radio show that he will donate any contract incentives to athletic department employees who endured pay cuts during the COVID-19 epidemic. As Angelique Chengelis wrote in The Detroit News, the athletic department cut most salaries from 5 to 10 percent and froze the salaries it didn’t cut. Athletic director Warde Manuel projected in June that the department ran a deficit of $62.9 million. Harbaugh is eligible for $4 million in bonuses. He’s already earned $500,000 for winning the Big Ten East. Classy move.