SALT LAKE CITY – You'll have to give Utah State credit for thinking big.
In a time of instability in college athletics, USU took a step in the right direction, Thursday, by signing football coach Gary Andersen and athletics director Scott Barnes to contract extensions. The agreements will take Barnes through the 2015-16 academic year and Andersen through the 2016 football season.
That's a long way out.
On the other hand, there's a lot of work they've already done.
Who knows what will happen by 2016. There may be only a four super conferences by then, and everyone else will be fighting for the scraps. Or maybe athletics will have been boiled down to the intramural level at smaller universities.
Which is all the more reason USU was wise in opting for stability over paranoia, and known commodities over fishing expeditions.
GARY ANDERSEN
The extensions will be considered foolhardy to some, considering the fact most colleges are losing money on their sports teams. Also, there's the worry over the long-term viability of the Western Athletic Conference, of which USU is a member.
But USU needs steady leadership now more than ever. Since 1998, it has had four A.D.'s and four head football coaches.
Last thing the school needs now is to conduct major hiring searches as it figures out its future.
I've been impressed with what the two signees have done thus far. Barnes has increased the Big Blue Scholarship Fund membership by 30 percent and increased operating revenues by one-third. He helped complete the Laub sports complex in the north end zone of the football stadium.
Meanwhile, he has managed to keep Stew Morrill happy as the team's highly successful basketball coach, which is a major plus all by itself.
Barnes was a reasoned and fair voice when all the turbulence occurred involving BYU, last month.
Andersen's credentials are less quantifiable. His team went 4-8 last year, which is only slightly better than predecessor Brent Guy did in his final season (3-9). Still, it was the most in Logan since 2002.
Also, Andersen has done a couple of other things. First, he has instilled more competitiveness in his teams. USU lost by just seven to Oklahoma, beat Idaho State and led Fresno State in the late third quarter of last week's game at Romney Stadium.
Andersen's teams don't look intimidated.
And he still hasn't reached a full recruiting class yet.
He has improved instate recruiting and done a better job at working with LDS missionaries and Polynesian players.
Slowly but surely the Aggies are becoming competitive.
Sure, it's a risk. But retaining coaches and administrators isn't easy, nowadays. Contract extensions are a fact of life. So are firings.
It just so happens that at this time, and this school, keeping them around is the smartest way to go.