During the heat of recruiting season FAU proudly announced that Lane Kiffin and the school had agreed to a 10-year contract extension, keeping him in Boca Raton through the 2027 season.
However, over five months later, no official word has come on that deal yet. The Miami Herald dug into the situation a bit, and got word back from FAU stating that "Coach Kiffin's extension is an agreement in principle and the written details are still being worked out."
The paper was able to obtain Kiffin's current contract, which contains some interesting language in the event that the University president or athletic director were no longer employed in their current roles. Here is the contract language of that in Kiffin's current deal.
"In the event the current University President and Athletic Director are no longer serving in those capacities at any time during the term, each of the forgoing amounts are reduced by half."
That's significant because back in January FAU athletic director Pat Chun left for the Washington State athletic director job, replacing Bill Moos (who left Pullman for Nebraska). So come next season, because of the AD change, a school would only have to pay $1 million if before December 12th to lure Kiffin away, and $750k after the 12th, as opposed to the full $2 million before December 12th, and $1.5 million after. His current deal drops the buyout $500k annually every 12th of December.
Chances are likely that those buyout figures were addressed in the new contract extension, but until official word comes out that the details have been worked out, we won't know for sure.
Most importantly, here we are five months later and still nothing official on that contract extension that had all of college football talking back in mid-December. What could possibly be the hold up?
Head over to the Miami Herald to read more on the situation, including information on Kiffin's bonuses last season.