Long-term deal for Fitzgerald, NU
Pat Fitzgerald and Jim Phillips spent a whirlwind Tuesday in New York. They wore business suits, palled around with donors and watched Northwestern alum Joe Girardi manage the home team at Yankee Stadium.
Were the Wildcats’ football coach and athletic director seeking money for their Facility Master Plan?
“No,” Phillips joked. “We have this new contract we have to pay.”
“This new contract” is Fitzgerald’s 10-year deal that not only elevates his compensation into the middle of the Big Ten pack, it elevates his assistants and support personnel to that level as well.
“It was important to signify the feelings we have toward Pat, and also for Pat to make the commitment back to Northwestern,” Phillips said. “It’s certainly for his benefit and also Northwestern’s benefit.”
“We’re all on the same team,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s a great day for Wildcat Nation. It’s a total commitment to a championship.”
By tearing up Fitzgerald’s old contract that went to 2015 and replacing it with an estimated $20 million deal that goes to 2020 — Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz is the only other Big Ten coach with such a long contract — Phillips hopes to scare away Fitzgerald’s potential suitors.
Talks for this deal began in October but became urgent when Michigan tried to lure away Fitzgerald in early January. Of course, Notre Dame and Penn State long have been mentioned as eventual landing spots for the 36-year-old Fitzgerald.
“I just want to end some of that banter,” Phillips said with regards to Fitzgerald’s buyout clause. “It’s pretty strong and pretty cost-prohibitive. If somebody wants him bad enough, they’re going to have to pay a pretty steep price.”
Perhaps more important, Fitzgerald and Phillips wanted to let potential recruits know Northwestern’s stance on their sixth-year coach.
“I would say absolutely (it matters to recruits),” Fitzgerald said. “We want to make it a championship-level program.”
That includes the Facility Master Plan that reaches the decision-making stage in August.
During late May and early June, Phillips and a Northwestern team will visit 15-20 other colleges in search of the best ideas for their comprehensive plan. Phillips said NU representatives will visit Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State in addition to private schools and smaller schools.
“It’s not only for football,” Phillips said. “It’s what do we do in soccer? What do we do with softball? What do we do with baseball?”
Phillips suggested the plans for football’s prospective “Sunday to Friday” facility need to incorporate most of NU’s 19 varsity sports, which could provide the opportunity to move football’s base to a lakeside campus site.
Northwestern’s football operations (and the strength and conditioning facilities for most sports) are based at the Nicolet Football Center, which is next door to Ryan Field and 1.2 miles from the heart of campus.
“I think there’ll be something completely different for football operations,” Fitzgerald said. “What it is, how it is and where it is and all that, I have no idea yet.”