Rutgers Univ. last month signed football coach Kyle Flood to a two-year extension, and RU President Robert Barchi this week said that the reason school officials sought private funding to extend Flood "was motivated by interests to lure future prospects," according to Keith Sargeant of the Newark STAR-LEDGER. The deal, which runs through '18, includes a "guaranteed increase" of $3.4M for the lifetime of the contract. Barchi said, "Kyle was being put in a very difficult, negative recruiting position by the fact that his contract as written only extended for three years. So many of the kids that he was recruiting would only potentially have him for two years. And the other coaches were just hammering him in the competition for the best athletes. So we wanted to make sure that he had the best shot at fielding a successful team." Sargeant notes Flood entered this season as the "lowest-paid head coach in the Big Ten, earning $950,000 in guaranteed compensation." Every other coach in the Big Ten "earns at least" $1M. Flood will "reach that plateau in three months, when his salary increases" to $1.25M from the $1.05M he was set to be paid next year. But Flood "remains at the bottom of the salary scale among Big Ten head coaches." Barchi: "We felt that he ought to be, as a new coach in the Big Ten, at least at a salary level which is at the bottom of the Big Ten." He said the "importance of it being privately funded is very clear." Barchi: "The notion that we've done anything there that could've gone to faculty is just not true" (Newark STAR-LEDGER, 10/10).
