Small threadjack here, apologies...
I don't remember the exact specifics, but we all know that the number of multi-year contracts is very limited (next year is an election year - if you happen to talk to a candidate for state legislator, you should bring this up - it's a stupid rule and as a whole it probably harms more than helps all of the universities in the state). CU uses theirs on:
- The President
- Some of the Nobel-prize winning professors
- I think some of the Chancellors, but I'm not sure
- Athletics
- The AD
- The Men's and Women's head Basketball Coaches
- The head Football Coach
- One of the Football Coordinators
Does the lack of multi-year contracts harm the ability to hire good coaches? Probably. I think the AD does what it can to minimize the negatives (handshake agreements, giving coaches several months notice that they're going to be fired before firing them, etc), and this probably does alleviate some of the concerns, but definitely not all. It also means that we probably have to overpay by some non-quantifiable amount for every assistant (which, incidentally ends up achieving exactly the opposite of the legislature's intent: it increases costs rather than decreasing them).
Outside of football, how do you think it harms the school's ability to hire quality
head coaches? What happens when Wetmore retires? What if Nike U decides to give him whatever absurd amount he would demand to hire him? What if we ever decide to get a baseball team? What if Kritza's replacement turns out to be the Pat Summitt of women's college volleyball, and Stanford comes calling?
On the academic side (including the CU Health Center research doctors), in addition to the Nobel prize winners, there are probably quite a few other prize winning professors that it would be a good idea to reward with multi-year contracts. It would definitely help to be able to hire them in the future as well.
A hard limit on the number of multi-year contracts for the state universities is just stupid. It's one of the absolute dumbest ideas the politicians in Denver ever came up with. Create a legal set of standards that need to be met in order to justify a multi-year contract - that'd be fine, but a hard number limit is full on retard.
Seriously, if you talk to a state politician this election year, you really should bring this up. It would be a good thing to get fixed (and it just might help the football team win someday).