August 12, 2008
Albuquerque Journal
Long, Krebs Agree in Principle
By Greg Archuleta, Journal Staff WriterUniversity of New Mexico athletics director Paul Krebs and football coach Rocky Long have agreed in principle on a new contract, Krebs said Monday.
In fact, the two have been in agreement for awhile. It's the lawyers for both sides that have held up the deal for the 11th-year coach.
"From my perspective, we've agreed on financial terms," Krebs said. "There's some legal language, some contractual language in the contract that's going back and forth between the attorneys.
"I think I can speak for the lawyers on both sides that this is not the only thing they're working on — whether it's our attorney that does human resource and contractual work and has a multitude of other issues, or Rocky's attorney, who has other cases and clients."
Krebs, who announced in February on his weekly radio show on KKOB-AM (770) that the school had begun contract-extension talks with Long, dismissed speculation that the contract is on hold until the NCAA informs UNM on its ruling concerns three allegations of major rules violations that took place between 2004 and 2005.
"There's absolutely no connection," Krebs said, "which I think some people are trying to connect it somehow to what may or may not be happening with the NCAA report that we think is forthcoming any day."
Long confirmed that the negotiation process between Krebs and him ended long ago.
"Paul and I totally agree on it," he said. "There's just some, and I don't completely understand it, some legal terms that the two lawyers can't agree on that's the only thing that's holding it up. I think both sides are working in good faith, and I'm confident a deal is going to get done. Other than that, I couldn't care less about my contract right now because it's football season."
Krebs refused to comment on the value of the contract, saying he preferred to wait until the contract is signed before UNM releases the details.
"I think it is very competitive within our conference and nationally," Krebs said. "We're committed to getting him a long-term contract that is consistent with the marketplace, and he's under market right now."
According to UNM, Long's current salary is $440,000 per season, which puts him eighth of nine coaches in the Mountain West Conference, just above UNLV's Mike Sanford ($435,000).
The average income of MWC coaches is $666,326, according to salaries provided by coacheshotseat.com. Utah's Kyle Whittingham has the league's median income at $672,000.
Long's contract runs out at the end of the 2009 season.
Krebs said the process of renegotiating a contact isn't cut-and-dried.
"It's not the kind of thing where you get in the room and you agree, and the next day you have a document," he said.
The extended process, however, has allowed Krebs and Long to form and alliance from what had been speculated to be a professional relationship at best.
"I feel good, really good about the conversations he and I have had over the last six months," Krebs said. "I think coach Long and I are really in tune in terms of the direction and vision for the program. An outgrowth of these contractual discussions, to me, have been a sense that we're on the same page."
TICKET-SALES UPDATE: UNM's season-ticket total is beginning to separate significantly from last year's pace, said Mark Koson, associate athletics director for tickets and auxiliary services. The team had sold 13,720 as of Monday morning, now more than 700 ahead of the 2007 figure just less than three weeks before the first home game.