The Pac-12 football championship game was still an hour from kickoff Friday night in Las Vegas and here was Phil Knight wading through a sea of red outside Allegiant Stadium.
The 83-year-old Nike co-founder was easy to spot amid the red-dressed swath of Utah fans. Knight wore only one color -- hat, sport coat, mask, jeans, sneakers -- all of it, black. His wife, Penny, walked a few steps in front of him. His trusted friend, Ken O’Neil, was a few steps behind. Utah fans who recognized the sneaker mogul whipped around as they saw Knight pass by, pointed at him, and whispered to each other.
What nobody could have known is that the game within the game was already underway.
Last week, per a source, Knight signed off on a 10-year, $85 million extension that was offered by the University of Oregon to football coach Mario Cristobal. Year No. 1 would double Cristobal’s base salary and put it in excess of $7 million a year. It escalated from there and was easily the most lucrative deal ever offered to a football coach in Eugene.
Phil and Penny have subsidized a number of powerful football-related projects at UO over the years. They’ve built buildings, expanded Autzen Stadium, helped increase the recruiting footprint and even pitched in when Cristobal said he needed to retain assistants.
Now, with Miami poised to pounce, they planned to write the check that would retain Cristobal.
However, by kickoff there was trouble.
Cristobal didn’t sign Oregon’s contract extension before the title game. He instead made plans to talk with his agent the following day. Then, his team got blown off the field by the Utes: 38-10. The Ducks’ coach took the loss hard. He spoke in the post-game news conference for only six minutes. Then, on Saturday Cristobal boarded the private plane owned by long-time Oregon booster Ed Maletis and embarked on a whirlwind recruiting trip that would include multiple states, more than 25 recruits and span 14 days.
That trip is now cut short.
Cristobal may be a few hours away from ending two days of wild speculation. He may be poised to take the head coach job at Miami. Or he may be scrambling back to Eugene to try and salvage a clunky couple of days and a booster relationship that appears to be teetering. Right now I’m not sure what Cristobal has left to come back to at Oregon because I suspect he may have lost the only donor he ever needed.
That 10-year contract extension?
“It was pulled off the table when Mario didn’t sign it and got on the plane,” said a source close to the situation.
Athletic department officials at Oregon and Cristobal’s representatives would not confirm that detail. It may be a matter of semantics (did he turn it down or was it pulled when he didn’t sign it?) Knight isn’t speaking, either. But those who know the booster well tell me he doesn’t like to be played and doesn’t appreciate those who view the job of head football coach in Eugene as a stepping stone.
Remember, just four years ago Oregon got leveraged badly by Willie Taggart’s agent, Jimmy Sexton. The Ducks scrambled and offered Taggart a contract extension. They expected Taggart to sign on the spot. Instead, he boarded a university-funded plane to go recruit and made a pitstop where he interviewed for the Florida State job. Sexton used the Ducks’ contract extension offer to get Taggart a six-year, $30 million contract in Tallahassee.
It doesn’t appear that Oregon wants to be used a second time. Either that or the Ducks expected Cristobal to fall over and kick his feet at the ceiling at the thought of a decade-long extension and when he didn’t they were annoyed. Knight couldn’t have been thrilled with the no-show performance on the field by Oregon vs. Utah, either.
Cristobal to Miami?
It sort of feels like that’s where this may be headed by sunrise, doesn’t it?
Oregon fans are frustrated. Boosters are miffed. Cristobal appeared briefly on Sunday in a news conference promoting the Alamo Bowl matchup with Oklahoma but questions from media weren’t allowed. Meanwhile, Ducks players have the week off but were instructed by the coaching staff, “Don’t read Twitter.”
It was the best advice of the day.
The Miami Herald reported on Sunday evening that Cristobal agreed to terms with the Hurricanes but hadn’t signed the contract. Sports Illustrated said Miami had imposed a noon Monday deadline. Other news agencies indicated nothing was official and that Cristobal’s “decision” would stretch into early Monday or even longer. I’m being told nothing has been decided but I’m left wondering about Knight’s support of Cristobal.
It may be entirely possible that Oregon’s coach is agonizing over two contract offers -- similar dollars and years but in different zip codes. But the longer this soap opera goes on the more unlikely it feels to me that Cristobal can return to Eugene without alienating the one person he needs in his corner to be successful.
Basically, Phil Knight.
Said one UO insider: “What ever happened to loyalty?”
Said another: “How does Mario come back to Oregon without Phil in his corner?”
I have to think Oregon’s No. 1 booster would like to see UO win a football national title during his lifetime. He and his wife have invested $1 billion in the university over the years. Brian Kelly ditched Notre Dame for a windfall at LSU. Lincoln Riley bolted from Oklahoma to USC in the name of generational wealth. The rest of us spend the week lamenting how serious and lucrative the business of college football now feels, but it probably felt that way long ago for the Knight family.
Cristobal has to do what’s best for himself and his family. Nobody should blame him if he decides he needs to be closer to his mother, alongside his older brother, and back at Miami. But I wonder now if he’s misplayed the Oregon contract extension so badly that he really didn’t leave himself a choice.
I could be wrong here. Maybe Cristobal will do what ex-Ducks coach Chip Kelly once did when he verbally accepted the Buccaneers’ job late one night in Eugene and then decided it was all wrong. By morning, he was coming back for another season. The “Chip-Flop” didn’t cost him a relationship with Knight or cause any hard feelings. This one feels different in part because Cristobal isn’t armed with Kelly’s sterling record at Oregon.
I keep replaying that scene with Knight outside Allegiant Stadium. He was looking for his entry gate. His entourage was alongside. The Ducks were inside, preparing for a game that might have sent them to a Rose Bowl and a rematch with Ohio State. It turns out there was so much more happening.
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