Bohls: For Texas, Rodney Terry's pay raise has been clarified as well as justified

While I got ya, here are nine things and one crazy prediction:

1. Either way, better not screw this one up, Texas

A raise is a raise: To clarify Rodney Terry’s financial situation, Texas' interim men's head basketball coach technically doubled his salary from $600,000 to $1.2 million when he was promoted on Dec. 12, but his new financial package amounts to the monthly equivalent of that larger amount when pro-rated, according to an open records request. Yeah, confusing. If he were to still be employed on New Year’s Eve at the same salary that includes a $600,000 salary and a $50,000-a-month compensation allotment for taking over the head coaching job, it’d equal $1.2 million. But his contract runs through the end of April, meaning the raise could actually be only $250,000. Of course, if Terry were to be elevated to the permanent head coaching position, I’m sure he’d be raised even higher to maybe $2 million to $3 million but not in the $5 million range of predecessor Chris Beard. I’m hearing it’s anything but a slam dunk. Terry would probably be a lock for that job if he reached the Elite Eight and maybe even the Sweet 16, but were Texas to lose its first or second NCAA Tournament game, his chances diminish greatly. That said, he’s done a terrific job in his role, keeping the team’s emotional level even, its performances way above average and the veteran staff on the same page. Athletic director Chris Del Conte has to have spent the last two months seriously vetting potential candidates to be ready to name Terry or someone else as the permanent coach soon after the season ends. Del Conte is on record as “absolutely” considering Terry a serious candidate, and ESPN folks from Dick Vitale to Kris Budden have called on Texas to stick with him. But it’s not that simple a choice. With football in a state of flux, it’s imperative that Del Conte and UT President Jay Hartzell not screw this up.

2. Losing the Longhorn Network will hurt Texas

The TV tail: DeLoss Dodds said he’s got his share of concerns about the landscape of college athletics and is absolutely correct when he says he thinks the schools got it wrong a long time ago. “I worry about where college athletics are going with the television people deciding what happens,” the former Longhorns athletic director said. “It’s a little worrisome with TV making the decisions for universities instead of the college presidents doing so. It would be better to start all over and build different regions and take on television. It would have been more money for the schools.” Not sure if Dodds is implying Texas should buy CBS or ESPN or set up regional networks that schools could have owned and controlled, but hey, the late Red McCombs said Texas has more money than the Vatican. And Dodds is right. The tail is definitely wagging the dog as television moves the needle and, in fact, owns the needle. The Big Ten added Rutgers and Maryland to expand on the lucrative East Coast market and get into New York/New Jersey and Washington, D.C., and Baltimore. Now it gets into California with the addition of USC and UCLA, and the SEC grows with two killer brands in Texas and Oklahoma. … That said, Texas got more out of television than most schools once it agreed with ESPN to establish the Longhorn Network as part of the school’s third-tier media rights, a huge source of revenue with the cable giant paying Texas a $15 million a year royalty for 20 years and broadcasting at least one Big 12 football game and a jillion basketball, volleyball, baseball and softball games totaling 175 annual live events to gain massive exposure in recruiting, branding and merchandise sales. “Yeah, it goes away (with the SEC move),” Dodds said. “That’s been really good for our fans and for our kids. LHN helped recruiting a lot. I think people will miss that. That’s huge.” … For those new to these parts, Dodds did offer Texas A&M to join in with Texas on the ground-breaking network, and while the Aggies said no, the deal proved to be as divisive for the Big 12 as it was rewarding for Texas. Sure, A&M, Nebraska and others used that as a wedge and impetus for them to join other leagues and it engendered a ton of animosity, none moreso than LHN’s controversial desire to broadcast 18 high school games. That never came about. But I’ve always believed LHN made for a convenient excuse. The Aggies just wanted out of big brother’s shadow and to stand on their own, and the Cornhuskers were tired of being dominated in football by the Longhorns and were ticked off that Texas helped kill partial academic qualifiers, which in turn short-circuited Nebraska’s recruiting. The Huskers haven’t been the same since and rarely recruit in Texas as their program has become nationally irrelevant. (Yes, I know, the Longhorns haven’t been tearing it up either.)

Bohls: Texas women hoops team played poorly with high stakes on the line

3. Searching for silver linings in a 3-0 loss

Hard time for hardballers: If the Texas baseball team was looking for a measuring stick about its potential after the first 2½ weeks of the season, David Pierce found it. He got a stupendous pitching performance out of Lebarron Johnson Jr. and his staff in Tuesday’s 3-0 loss to No. 1 LSU, but has too little offense, managing just four hits against the Tigers. Texas (3-5) has just one regular hitting above .286, and that won’t win many games. Dylan Campbell has been the biggest disappointment, hitting just .174 with two RBIs in eight games, but he's hardly alone. The .214 team batting average ranks last in the Big 12. Johnson harnessed his really good stuff, including a split-fingered change, and struck out a career-high nine in five shutout innings to make a strong case for cracking the Longhorns’ starting rotation. It was his best game as a collegian. … The Horns could get well — or somewhat better — in a three-game set at Cal State Fullerton, which just lost a pair of games to Michigan to fall to 2-4. The Titans have fallen on hard times, recovering from last year’s 22-33 record and sporting a gruesome 7.36 staff ERA. … Texas A&M second-year head coach Jim Schlossnagle got into it with some Aggies fans after his team lost two of three at home to Portland last weekend. Said Schloss about his team, “I believe in them. It’s a tough game. But some of our fans are yelling at our players over the dugout. I don’t know what kind of place this is. I thought there was some Aggie loyalty around here.”

Golden: Longhorn men's bench let them down in Waco

4. Texas' Vic Schaefer, on the Big 12: 'You said it, not me.'

One Vic-tory short: Vic Schaefer had all kinds of bones to pick after his Texas women’s basketball team’s home loss to Baylor, besides the play of his own team. He apparently took a jab at the Big 12 office when he said the league schedule didn’t do the Longhorns any favors: “We couldn’t make a shot. Were we tired? It’s where we are. Our bye for Texas didn’t come until after 15 (actually 14) games in the conference. It’s almost unhealthy when you don’t get a bye until your (next-to) last week.” Looking for clarification, I asked Schaefer if he considered this more retribution from the Big 12 headquarters as punishment for leaving for the SEC in 16 months. Responded Schaefer, “You said it, not me.” But Oklahoma State and TCU got theirs after 13 games … Asked if Texas has already done enough to secure a top-four national seed to be allowed to host the first two rounds, Schaefer told our “On Second Thought” podcast, “There’s a side of me that feels like our power ranking is top 10 before the game (now 11th), and we shouldn't have lost any ground just because we played a Baylor team who probably has a decent NET (29th) as well. So to me, we've certainly done enough. I think if you win the Big 12 (by beating Kansas State this Saturday) I think that's pretty good. I think we've done some things that are good enough, but at the end of the day, we can control it by just taking care of ourselves.” … The Big 12 women's hoops teams aren’t as strong as the men’s, but Baylor’s Nicki Collen took issue with that and said, “We don’t get the national respect the men get, but we need to. We have a lot of teams (six) in the top 50 of the NET rankings.”

5. A disappointing day at the Big 12 indoors, but not for all

On track: Texas' Julien Alfred continued her historic season at the Big 12 indoor championships, breaking the seven-second barrier in the 60-meter dash, winning in 6.97 seconds to break her own NCAA record for the third time and becoming the eighth-fastest person in history to ever run under seven seconds. She also won the 200 to defend her title and totaled a spectacular 20 points for the Longhorns. “She’s a weekend warrior,” coach Edrick Floréal said. “You think she’s this sweet, little girl, but when the gun goes off, all hell breaks loose.” Teammate Rhadisat Adeleke set a collegiate record and an Ireland national record when she won the 400 meters in 50.33 seconds. “She doesn’t say much, but I call it the alter ego," Floréal said. "She just turned 20. She didn’t want to run the 200 when she first got here, but she’s one who has really blown up.” … Floréal doesn’t hate music. He just hates it during his practices. The Texas men’s and women’s track and field coach despises the loud, blaring stuff during workouts and says he can’t concentrate. But it’s all about the kids. “Marcellus Moore brings the radio, and I think I’m deaf. I can’t even hear myself think out there. They don’t play the cleanest music, but it does make them happy.” … He said he strongly considered using sprinter Brenen Thompson in last week’s Big 12 indoors where the men finished a disappointing third and women were runners-up, but Floréal didn’t want to rush the talented freshman. “He’s an unbelievable athlete,” he said of Thompson, who was a reserve wide receiver in the fall. “I thought about using him, but I chickened out. If you’re not used to running indoors with a lopsided track, you could tear something. When the gun goes off, this guy is going out of the blocks like a cannon. In football, Sark probably ran them some for punishment. He didn’t realize how much we run here for the hell of it.”

6. Netflix series has aced life on the PGA Tour so far

Fore: Really getting into “Full Swing,” the new Netflix series about the pranks and the pitfalls that is the PGA Tour. Former Longhorns Jordan Spieth and Scottie Scheffler, who have won four majors and 18 golf tournaments and $81 million between them, are getting a lot of play, at least during the first three episodes. Yeah, they are as nice and cool as you think. Then there’s bad boy Brooks Koepka, the once-dominant No. 1 player in the world who can’t get out of his own way. He does have a sweet crib and a pretty wife but not the game anymore. The series is very well done.

7. Austin FC's 3-2 opening loss was a bad look all around

Not the greatest of starts: Austin FC started miserably against what is expected to be the worst team in the league in MLS expansion club St. Louis City SC, losing 3-2 and learning Tuesday that top defender Julio Cascante will miss a minimum of eight weeks with an abductor strain. The opener was a bad look for the home team, made even worse by a couple of youthful mistakes by back-liner Kipp Keller, who made a sleepy pass backward to his goalkeeper only to have it controlled by St. Louis’ Jared Stroud, who easily put the ball in the net. Mistakes happen. But it’s a professional gripe that the club wouldn’t allow Keller to be interviewed by the local media. What’s the worst that’s going to happen? No one was going to ridicule Keller or ask him any question that's tougher than the pressure he faces on the pitch. And remember, this is pro sports. I just don’t get the coddling. And you know if Keller had scored a brace, Verde would have trotted him out. I’m betting Alex Ring returns to the pitch as a starter.

8. From A&M to the NFL to A&M to ...

Scattershooting: While wondering whatever happened to former Aggie coach Mike Sherman.

9. Meanwhile, from the greatest seat in the whole world

On the couch: Suffered through “Intrusion” at home. Had some potential about a husband keeping secrets from his wife, but it lapsed into lame pretty quickly. Gave it three ducks.

10. Talk about a big rebound

Crazy prediction: Chris Beard will reach the Final Four at his next school by the spring of 2025 probably at Ole Miss or Louisville.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Whichever way Texas goes, it must get men's basketball hire right