The sacks of money weren't that huge

An interesting note via the Twitters:

@NWARobbie: Have new Arkansas coach Bret Bielema's letter of agreement in hand. It's actually a 6-year deal worth $3.2 million annually.

I'm obviously speaking in relative terms here, but that's, like, not that much. Bielema was making $2.5 million at Wisconsin, and given the Rose Bowls and his age and whatnot, it seems pretty likely that he could've gotten a 30 percent raise via an extension if it'd really been about the benjamins.

The more I think about it, the more I think this:

It's worth considering that Bielema had lost both of his coordinators in the last three years; there's a point at which maintaining awesomeness at a place without much reason for awesomeness is just really hard, and there's a point right after that at which you're Kirk Ferentz.

Three years ago, Kirk Ferentz could've owned the city of Cleveland. Nine days ago, the guys at BHGP were gaping in amazement at the incomprehensible amount of money that would be required to buy out his contract since "the nation's sixth highest paid coach went 4-8, lost to Central Michigan, hired a guy to coordinate the nation's 114th ranked scoring offense, and finished last in the Legends Division of the worst Big Ten in a generation."

The only thing about awesomeness is that, going forward, anything other than awesomeness is such a drag, man. So for Bielema, it was probably either that or this chart:

Probably the chart.