Martin's contract will protect him from Pearl's wrong-doings

(Ed. Note: Due to technical maintenance to Blogger's user interface, we have been unable to publish any posts for the last 24 hours. This post should have been published on Thursday afternoon. Thank you for your patience)

Part of the reason that many folks were surprised that Tennessee was able to move so quickly on getting a new head coach was that the job vacated by Bruce Pearl was a tarnished one.

In other words, with the NCAA breathing down the Vols' neck thanks to Bruce Pearl's inability to comply with NCAA rules, coaching Tennessee was like dating someone on active military duty. Things may be going great for a while, but in the back of your mind you always know that they are, eventually, going to get called into action. On the surface, Tennessee looks like a very good job for Martin. But those NCAA sanctions are coming eventually.

So in order to land Cuonzo Martin, Tennessee had to add some extra incentives into his contract:

If, as a result of currently pending NCAA proceedings, the men's basketball program (a) receives NCAA restrictions on recruiting in addition to those already self-imposed by the University; (b) banned from postseason play; or (c) incurs a reduction of one or more scholarships, then the initial term of employment will be extended year-for-year based upon the number of years the University (a) receives NCAA restrictions on recruiting in addition to those already self-imposed by the University; (b) banned from postseason play; or (c) incurs a reduction of one or more scholarships. In the event that any additional year(s) are added, the terms applicable to those additional year(s) will be the same as in year five.

For those not as well-versed in legalese, essentially what this is saying is that if the NCAA hands down anymore sanctions, than Martin will have his contract automatically extended a year for each year that the program is restricted. Lose a scholarship for the 2011-2012 and the 2012-2013 seasons, and Martin will have his contract (worth $1.3 million annually) extended from five to seven seasons.

The link above is to the Knoxville News-Sentinel site, which provides a full breakdown of Martin's contract with UT.