So, time to answer the question that was on everyone’s mind...
This seemed like a fait accompli after the last two weeks, as the Commodores beat Ole Miss and Tennessee to finish the season at 6-6 and ensure the eighth bowl bid in program history. As a private university, Vanderbilt isn’t required to release the terms of its coaches’ contracts (and generally doesn’t, as a matter of course) but it was widely assumed that Mason had only a year or two at most left on his original contract with the university, and also widely assumed that he was the lowest-paid head football coach in the Southeastern Conference.