Syracuse, N.Y. -- When Dino Babers met with a group of administrators from Syracuse University in the fall of 2015, he made a request.
If SU wanted Babers to lead its football program, he did not want word of an agreement to leak to the public before Bowling Green's conference championship game. Do that, Babers told the school's search committee, and he would come to Syracuse.
"He gave me his word," said Floyd Little, a member of the committee that hired Babers.
Central Florida had an agreement with Babers in 2015, according to two sources, but botched it when word got out early.