I heard much the same thing as PA Hardwoods. The first story that emerged was that he retired/resigned because of some controversy over where he was getting the funding for his deer management studies. It came out later that was supposedly a lie and that he really was considering resigning because of the benefit issue mentioned above. The last I heard was that his retirement plans were on hold until the current contract was settled....90 days or so from July 1st if I remember correctly.