Monday, November 05, 2007

Tempests, teapots, et cetera

It’s been a big day in the little corner of cyberspace reserved for Auburn news, with lots of talk about Tommy Tuberville’s job status.

But what else is new, right?

The biggest “news” today seems to be the report that Texas A&M is considering a buyout of Dennis Franchione’s contract. My colleague Ross Dellenger (to whom I can’t link for competition-based reasons, but who is very much worth reading everyday) also reported today that Tuberville will be A&M’s first choice.

As “news” goes, these two reports are fresher than “Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassinated in Sarajevo” and “Pearl Harbor attacked.“ But not by a whole lot.

Let’s review what we know about this story:

1. It’s been clear for a month that Texas A&M wants to fire Franchione, whose already rocky job status became downright embarrassing when his farcical secret newsletter became public.
2. It’s been clear for at least as long that A&M will want to talk to Tuberville, who spent a year in College Station as a defensive coordinator, about becoming Franchione’s replacement.
3. Tuberville’s AU contract extends through 2011 and has a $6 million buyout.
4. There’s no indication A&M has formally asked for permission to talk to Tuberville.
5. Auburn President Jay Gogue and AD Jay Jacobs plan to discuss Tuberville’s contract at the end of the season, as usual.

As far as I can tell, there haven’t been any new developments in the story. As always when reading about a non-story in the news, the informed reader should wonder who benefits from such speculation. And the answer is the person in demand…in this case, Tuberville, whose price tag rises with every rumor about his chances of departing. The coach isn’t floating these trial balloons himself, of course, and would probably prefer not to be bothered with this “controversy” before the critical final two games of the season. But every story written about Tuberville’s job prospects elsewhere improves his leverage in negotiations with Auburn.

That’s why Tuberville is making wishy-washy noncommittal statements about not wanting to talk about A&M right now, rather than just saying he isn’t interested:

We’re not going to get into that the next two weeks. That would be a headache if we started doing all of those `ifs’ and `ands.‘

Of course, the denial from Texas A&M media relations director Alan Cannon is a little silly…does anyone really believe that Texas A&M hasn’t already made its decision?

“There are several false rumors circulating regarding the Texas A&M football program. Bill Byrne has repeatedly said he evaluates his programs at the end of each season and I have received no indication that he has changed his stance.

Dennis Franchione is the head football coach at Texas A&M and is currently working on a game plan to face a Top 10 football team in the Missouri Tigers.“

Good times.