Middle Tennessee Coach Rick Stockstill heard plenty of questions from his football players and recruits about how much the school might pay for the cost of attendance, so he decided to do something.
He postponed his $100,000 annual pay raise for four years to help the university pay that tab.
"I want to do what's best for our players, what's best for our recruits, what's best for this program," Stockstill said Friday. "Everybody's going to be doing cost of attendance, everybody's building new facilities. I'm doing everything I can to help not only this university, but our current players and our future players."
The Daily News Journal in Murfreesboro, Tenn., first reported Stockstill's new contract.
Stockstill said he started thinking of how he could assist the Conference USA program last season after his Blue Raiders asked what the cost of attendance will mean for them. Recruits he visited in December after the season ended had the same questions, and Stockstill had plenty of time to think about options while driving between states.
The coach approached Athletic Director Chris Massaro about restructuring the pay raise due to kick in this year. Stockstill signed the deal May 25, delaying his raise until January 2019. That frees up $400,000 while keeping his annual pay at $721,704 in exchange for an extension through December 2023 that adds more than two years to his deal.
"It was all kind of driven by him," Massaro said. "Having a first-class program and a chance to compete are more important to him. ... We locked down a great football coach for a long period of time whose values match exactly our institutional values."
What Middle Tennessee will be paying student-athletes as part of the cost of attendance hasn't been finalized, although Masaro said they have up to four options. CUSA presidents are meeting next week to see what league schools are planning.
It's still practice
According to excerpts from Kent Babb's new book, Not a Game: The Incredible Rise and Unthinkable Fall of Allen Iverson, the former Philadelphia 76ers star was intoxicated for what is probably the most memorable news conference in NBA history -- his notorious "talking about practice" exit interview in 2002.
As Babb detailed in an ESPN appearance Thursday, three former Sixers officials -- president Pat Croce, general manager Billy King and coach Larry Brown -- all shared their suspicions.
After a talk with Brown, Iverson left with a friend and returned later for the news conference.
"I assumed he went and fooled around somewhere," Brown said, tipping his hand up like a bottle, the book's author wrote.
Before the news conference, King said he could tell that something was off about Iverson, but "if we thought that he was drinking or whatever, we'd have never done it."
While Iverson does not slur his speech during a 100-second diatribe in which he drops the word "practice" roughly two-dozen times, a Philadelphia Daily News columnist also reportedly confirmed suspicions.
"He was lit," the columnist said. "Maybe you had to have been around him all the time to know the difference, but we all knew."
"As far as how I expressed practice, practice, practice over and over again, I wouldn't take that back," Iverson told the media gathered for the announcement of his official retirement from basketball in 2013. "Obviously, that sound bite, it's great for the media. The fans, they love that."
QUIZ
Where did Middle Tennessee Coach Rick Stockstill play college football?
ANSWER
Stockstill played quarterback for Bobby Bowden at Florida State from 1977-1981.
Sports on 06/06/2015