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Case you don't know, Pauley Pavilion will reopen, on schedule, in October. If you're UCLA, do you want Howland & Guerrero doing the honors?

It's time to pause for a lesson, one that I've learned from watching scores of coaching searches.

No. 1: Search firms are useless. They are a waste of money. And they often have agendas.

No. 2: A search committee should be comprised of one person making the decision. Typically, that's a strong athletic director.

Collaboration is overrated. A one-person search committee arrives at a coaching search already with a good idea of what it is looking for. It talks to other smart people -- in some cases lots of them -- but only in order to get information that informs its conception of what it wants in a coach.

Let me give you two examples, apologies if Sun Devils fans who won't like hearing this: Arizona's Greg Byrne and Washington State's Bill Moos.

--Fedora and UNC agreed on a 7-year deal. Five-year deals are usually standard for a new coach but Fedora received an extra two because UNC placed itself on two years of probation amid the NCAA investigation into impermissible benefits and academic fraud within the football program.

--Fedora’s base salary will be $350,000 per year. He’ll also receive an additional annual compensation of $1,350,000. That adds up to a total package of $1.7 million per year. That number does not include Fedora’s media and apparel contracts, which he’s expected to sign with outside sources.

Read more.

Tulane announces plan to build new football stadium on campus. 30k capacity, ready for 2014 season.