Thought I would put this here.
At the moment, the insiders at Auburn would tell you that the leader is Billy Napier - and he would be a fantastic hire for them. Mario's current Buyout is $8 mil and if the reports of a new contract are true, I expect that buyout to go over $10mil.
The biggest issue right now that Oregon has to deal with - and yet an issue over which Oregon has absolutely zero control - is the conference. Right now the Pac-12 is looking very bad nationally. Will Mario go to Auburn? That remains to be seen. I know that there is interest and his contract salary is actually insulting. I know that bonuses make up a lot, but when your base salary is just $2 mil, that is extremely low.
We will see. I hear Auburn wants to move quickly and they have already spoken to agents. I also know that there are meetings going on today to discuss the future. Auburn is not going to wait long for responses from top candidates and they would not have fired Malzahn if they were not reasonably sure that they had one of their top two targets locked in. The question is, which order does the AUBURN AD have? I hear Napier is their #1 guy, but that could be wrong.
At the moment, the insiders at Auburn would tell you that the leader is Billy Napier - and he would be a fantastic hire for them. Mario's current Buyout is $8 mil and if the reports of a new contract are true, I expect that buyout to go over $10mil.
The biggest issue right now that Oregon has to deal with - and yet an issue over which Oregon has absolutely zero control - is the conference. Right now the Pac-12 is looking very bad nationally. Will Mario go to Auburn? That remains to be seen. I know that there is interest and his contract salary is actually insulting. I know that bonuses make up a lot, but when your base salary is just $2 mil, that is extremely low.
We will see. I hear Auburn wants to move quickly and they have already spoken to agents. I also know that there are meetings going on today to discuss the future. Auburn is not going to wait long for responses from top candidates and they would not have fired Malzahn if they were not reasonably sure that they had one of their top two targets locked in. The question is, which order does the AUBURN AD have? I hear Napier is their #1 guy, but that could be wrong.
