More than seven months ago, the University of Michigan announced that it had promoted Sherrone Moore to be its new head football coach, agreeing to give him a five-year contract worth roughly $6 million per year.
As of Wednesday, however, that contract had yet to be fully executed − leaving Moore in a state of contractual limbo as the Wolverines prepare for Saturday’s season-opener against Fresno State.
An athletic department spokesperson confirmed this week that Moore is not yet under contract. That makes him one of a handful of Football Bowl Subdivision coaches who do not have a finalized contract in place at the start of the 2024 season.
The 38-year-old Moore is still working under a three-page document he signed in January known as a memorandum of understanding, or MOU. The document outlines some of the basic parameters of Moore’s future deal, including salary figures and bonus provisions. But it lacks some of the specifics and legalese that often serve as the backbone of a coaching contract − such as the circumstances in which Moore, who is facing potential punishment from the NCAA as part of its investigation into an alleged sign stealing operation, could be fired for cause.
‘Coach Moore and his representative have been working with our university attorneys to complete a fully executed contract and we expect that to be finalized soon,’ the Michigan spokesperson, Dave Ablauf, told USA TODAY Sports in an email Wednesday.
Moore’s agent did not reply to messages seeking comment.
MOUs are relatively common in the fast-paced world of college sports, often used as a stopgap measure to get a coach in the door during a recruiting period and buy both sides some time to negotiate the finer points of a deal. But in most cases, particularly in power conferences and with head coaches, they are replaced by full-fledged contracts within a few months if not weeks. Many even include a negotiation deadline.
Moore’s memorandum of understanding, for example, states that his offer is ‘contingent upon executing a full employment agreement within 90 days of signing this MOU’ − a deadline that passed April 25.
Martin Greenberg, a Milwaukee-based attorney and sports law professor at Marquette University, said this arrangement means Moore is effectively working without an enforceable contract, which poses risks both for the coach and the university, including the prospect of litigation.
‘What you’re operating under is the agreement to agree, with specified terms that are not contractual in nature,’ he said.
Coaches who are working under an MOU might not care much about the absence of a full contract, as long as they are being paid what they were promised. But Greenberg said such a relationship can become problematic if the relationship sours.
Depending on the specific language of an MOU, the document could be a placeholder that is not legally binding − making the coach an at-will employee by default, and giving each side a theoretical out. At the FBS level, head coach contracts usually require payments if either the coach or the school decide to terminate the deal early. But a coach working on an at-will basis could jump to another job without such a payment, while a school could fire the coach without cause and not owe them a buyout.
USA TODAY Sports learned that Moore’s contract has not been finalized after requesting copies of every Michigan football coach’s contract under public records law. The university’s Freedom of Information Act Office replied August 15 that it only had a fully executed contract for one coach: Defensive coordinator Wink Martindale.
Ablauf, the athletic department spokesperson, said Wednesday that ‘a few’ of the football program’s assistants had agreed to deals and ‘some’ had signed their contracts, though he did not specify which assistants fit into each category. Those who have not finalized their deals, including Moore, are working under MOUs, he said.
‘We are honoring the spirit of the agreements from the signed MOUs at the time of their appointment,’ Ablauf said.
At least three other FBS schools had yet to finalize contracts with their head coaches as of earlier this week: Tim Skipper at Fresno State, Bryant Vincent at Louisiana-Monroe and Sean Lewis at San Diego State.
A San Diego State spokesperson said Thursday that Lewis’ contract is expected ‘to be finalized shortly,’ while Louisiana-Monroe athletic director John Hartwell wrote in an email that he anticipates Vincent’s contract being approved at the University of Louisiana System governing board’s meeting in October. The coach’s offer letter explicitly requires him to acknowledge that his employment status with the school is at-will ‘until and unless a term contract is approved by the Board.’
Skipper, meanwhile, was under contract with Fresno State as an assistant coach when then-head coach Jeff Tedford resigned in mid-July for health reasons. Fresno State promoted the 46-year-old Skipper on an interim basis. The university’s public records office said Thursday that athletics department officials had confirmed that a new contract had not ‘been finalized at this time.’
Former Utah State assistant Nate Dreiling also is working as an interim head coach, and after the initial publication of this report, the university’s public-records office said ‘at this time (he) does not have a fully executed Head Football coach contract.’ The records office also provided a copy of an assistant-coach contract that Dreiling and other university officials signed in June and on July 1. Previously, Dreiling had been working on an at-will basis. He was promoted after the school fired Blake Anderson for cause in July.
Middle Tennessee coach Derek Mason, meanwhile, went almost nine months without a full contract before signing his deal late last week.
‘I think mostly it wasn’t a huge priority for anybody,’ Middle Tennessee athletic director Chris Massaro told The Daily News Journal, which is part of the USA TODAY Network. ‘I think he and I both realized in particular that there were 1,000 things we’d rather be talking about and get done that had more urgency and more timeliness than the contract.’
There are also questions at Kennesaw State, where longtime coach Brian Bohannon and the school are contractually obligated to renegotiate their agreement following the Owls’ move to the FBS this season, giving him “market-based” pay and bonus adjustments. But on Aug. 16, the university said no new document was available. The otherwise existing agreement would make him the FBS’ lowest-paid head coach – by far – and it includes bonuses connected to Football Championship Subdivision playoff achievements. Kennesaw State spokespeople did not reply to a request for comment earlier this week.
Greenberg said he was ‘shocked’ that so many schools had not finalized contracts with their head coaches on the eve of the first full week of games, suggesting that many of the disagreements are probably hinging on ‘the back end of the contract,’ including language about terminations and due process.
‘The universities and the coaches are not having difficulty, based upon the marketplace, on finding a common ground financially,’ he said. ‘It’s when we get to the legalese.’
Follow the reporters on social media @Tom_Schad and @ByBerkowitz.
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