BC AD's decision worth noting

Boston College's decision to fire Jeff Jagodzinski simply because he interviewed with the NFL's New York Jets may rate as the strangest development in a very strange college football season.

That said, some good could result from the school's controversial decision if it leads to more serious attention paid to contracts and even hand-shake agreements between coaches and their employers.

Eagles athletic director Gene DeFilippo made the move after he said Jagodzinski violated an understanding between the two longtime friends that neither party would so much as attempt to stray until after the third season of an original five-year contract.

DeFilippo's mistake was that he didn't put a three-year binder in writing. Had a no-interview clause been in Jagodzinski's contract, odds are there would have been no dispute regarding right and wrong. It's just as likely that Jagodzinski immediately would have replied "no can do" to the Jets' initial contact.

There's a more reasonable way to do this.

Suppose, for instance, all contracts between colleges and coaches included minimum four-year commitment clauses? On one hand, the school couldn't fire the coach during his first four seasons simply because of a disappointing record. On the other hand, the coach would be dismissed, and face substantial financial penalties, for exploring other jobs during the same period.

If nothing else, such a policy would help reduce the chaotic campus-jumping that has become an accepted aspect of the college athletic landscape.

It might also serve as a safeguard against the surreal salary spiral that led North Carolina to give its football coach, Butch Davis, a seemingly unwarranted pay boost after going 4-8 in his first season. UNC, in part, kicked in the extra money when it became apparent that Arkansas was considering a raid.

Carolina hardly is alone on that island. It's become standard procedure for successful first- and second-year coaches in football and basketball to get salary bumps, additional incentives and contract extensions simply for making the sort of early impact that's only to be expected.

The coaches and their agents can't be blamed. In a marketplace as aggressive and unregulated as college athletics, leverage is a tool most coaches think has to be wheeled whenever possible.

But in the NFL, league rules long have been in place to outlaw open-season job hunting.

The college game is an entirely different animal, however. It's a wild west environment that essentially allows each school and each conference to roam at will for coaching talent.

The NCAA doesn't have the authority to impose logical hiring guidelines and likely never will. The NCAA is little more than a loose union of several hundred member schools with several hundred separate agendas and operating policies. About the only thing those member schools can consistently agree upon is an urgency to bleed every possible buck out of its men's college basketball contracts with television networks.

But maybe, just maybe, Boston College and DeFilippo have stumbled onto something important by insisting that good-faith vows be honored, or else. It's for sure that Jagodzinski's successor will sign a contract that forbids job interviews during the first three seasons.