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Leach and Texas Tech Agree on Deal

After more than 10 months of negotiations, Mike Leach and Texas Tech have agreed on a contract extension, the Dallas Morning New reports.

The newspaper said Leach and chancellor Kent Hance met for almost three hours Thursday afternoon and agreed to the deal, which will extend Leach's contract through 2013. Leach could sign the contract as early as Friday.

Athletic director Gerald Myers and Leach's agents, Gary O'Hagan and Matt Baldwin of the International Marketing Group, did not attend the meeting.

Tech added four clauses to its Jan. 9 proposal that sent the negotiations into a tailspin. They included termination compensation if Leach would have been fired, the buyout he would pay if he left early, a penalty for interviewing for another job without permission and who controlled Leach's personal property rights. The newspaper reported that details weren't available as to how those issues were resolved.

Reporters Notebooks

Marlena Hartz, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Windy Sitton, a member of the Texas Tech Board of Regents, is hopeful that a resolution can be worked out in the contract dispute with Mike Leach. "This stalemate, especially in the media, is just not good for Texas Tech. There are no winners," she said.

Don Williams, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: One of the stumbling blocks in the Leach negotiations is Texas Tech's insistence on equal-money buyouts for both sides, something that is fast becoming a trend in college football as universities demand protection for the big-money investments they make in their programs, says Tony Barnhart of CBS.

Dwain Price, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Tech's offer doesn't sit well with Leach, who feels like an extortion victim. "What are they going to do after they [get] you to [sign] the sub-par deal? Then the next year they’ll come at you and say, 'All right, we want to give you an extension again, and we're going to knock off another quarter of the thing, so take this one or we'll fire you.' And they’ll just kind of extort me down to damn near nothing."

KCBD-TV, Lubbock: The station gets a lengthy interview with Leach, who says he expects to be coaching the team in the 2009 opener against the always tough Fighting Sioux of North Dakota.

Brandon George, Dallas Morning News: Leach said he plans to attend Friday's Board of Regents meeting.

Richard Justice, Houston Chronicle: Texas Tech should be embarrassed. Texas Tech failed.

Geoff Calkins, Memphis Commercial Appeal: The Liberty Bowl is becoming a big money pit. Memphis officials say the Justice Department has given them until September 2010 to bring the facility into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The changes — according to the city — will cost $40 million.

Texas Tech Has a $3.5 Million Reason to Fire Leach

With the clock possibly ticking on his coaching career at Texas Tech, Mike Leach took his case to a national audience Wednesday in what could be a last-ditch effort to save his job.

During an appearance on ESPN, Leach was asked if he expects to be fired Friday when the Texas Tech Board of Regents holds a special teleconference meeting to discuss his employment.

"Well, no. I mean I know that sounds odd. But you know, it's like and I've said this a couple of times. It's like John Wooden says, 'Your best is always enough,' and everyday Tech gets my best. And I think part of that along with the efforts of the other good people I have to work with we've been able to achieve a lot of things. You know, if somehow my best isn't good enough, I can live with that."

Reporters Notebooks

Matt Hayes, Sporting News: A three-part grading system helps determine what teams do the most with the least amount of talent. The Bowl Championship Series' biggest overachiever is Cincinnati. The biggest underachiever is Mississippi.

Ferd Lewis, Honolulu Advertiser: Hawaii has put a hiring freeze on several positions in the athletic department. The move comes after officials, citing the impact of a declining economy on revenue, said the department is staring at the possibility of a "$2 million to $3 million" deficit for the current fiscal year that ends June 30, 2009.

Matt Forman, Daily Northwestern: More on the fraudulent recruiting services. "The tape is great on high school film for everybody, but they haven't played a down of Big Ten football yet," Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald said. "The game changes dramatically — the size, the speed, the discipline, the expectations."

Jon Wilner, College Sports Hotline: One man's look at how the Pacific 10 Conference race shapes up for 2009.

Theismann: Tebow Needs to Play Under Center

Tim Tebow might be all the rage in the college game, but the quarterback's day of reckoning is coming if he doesn't learn to play under center before joining an NFL team, according to Joe Theismann.

The former Washington Redskin standout made his feelings known Monday while receiving the Davey O'Brien Legends Award at the Fort Worth Club, saying Tebow "is going to struggle" as an NFL player unless he sharpens some more conventional skills during his senior season.

Theismann's advice to Tebow? "Go to a camp where you learn how to work under the center. You’re going to be a professional football player. Learn to be one."