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-- So the biggest news item from Dabo Swinney's new contract was, duh, the compensation. Clemson made a resounding statement in pushing his annual salary to the neighborhood of the game's truly elite coaches.

But other than that, the most interesting part of Swinney's new contract is how it was negotiated. As in, he went out and hired an agent. Dan Radakovich told us Swinney enlisted the services of Russ Campbell and Patrick Strong of Balch Sport, a Birmingham-based agency that includes among its client list South Carolina AD Ray Tanner, North Carolina coach Larry Fedora and Boise State coach Bryan Harsin.

Some context: The late Mike Brown served as Swinney's agent since he became the head coach in 2008. But Swinney told us he didn't really consider Brown an agent by the typical definition for two reasons: 1) Because Brown did so much other stuff for Swinney that's not your typical agent type of duties including the All-In Foundation, Ladies Clinic, etc.; 2) Because Swinney typically takes a more active role than normal during contract negotiations.

Brown died of complications from pancreatic cancer in late January, just weeks after the Tigers beat Alabama for the national title. In March, Swinney told us he brought in longtime friend PJ Tessman from Alabama to perform a lot of the duties Brown did.

At the time, Swinney said he didn't really need an agent. He liked for Brown, and then Tessman, to take a "whole umbrella" approach that encompassed many functions.

"The foundation, camps, all our personal stuff, all of our financial anything and everything," Swinney said then. "Mike was so involved with our foundation and the board, Fantasy Camp, Ladies Clinic, camp stuff. With Mike it wasn't as much an agent as much as all the other things that he helped manage."

Radakovich said Swinney hired Balch Sport in May and the negotiations began soon thereafter.

"Mike certainly represented Dabo, but in the past it was a little more coach (involvement) than this one ended up being," Radakovich said of the negotiations. "It was a good process. I think Dabo is very excited and happy about how it worked out. He was able to continue to do the things he needed to do to prepare the team for the season while he and his representatives kind of got on the same page and where they needed to be. That's how the conversations went."

-- Fascinating to compare Swinney's new deal to various points of his career.

When Swinney took over in 2008, he was making $800,000 a year. Now he gets $1.5 million for taking the top off a pen and signing his name.

Wow.

When Swinney walked off the field in Glendale after losing to Alabama in January of 2016, he was making $3.3 million a year.

Nineteen months later, he's making double that.

The best part of this for Clemson fans, quite obviously, is it sends yet another resounding message that he is going to be here a long time.

This fall his family will move into a 20,000 square foot home. A few months ago he moved his office to the football operations palace that is now the envy of everyone.

The camaraderie and harmony up the administrative chain of command have never been better here.

The university recently awarded Swinney and his wife Kathleen honorary degrees.

So yeah, you might say the rumors of Texas A&M pursuing and landing him if Kevin Sumlin doesn't work out are a bit of a pipe dream.

"We knew we'd need to look at the contract after we won the national title, and it was just a matter of the when," Radakovich said. "We want to make sure we keep him here as our football coach."

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