When men’s volleyball coach Charlie Wade signed a two-year extension in the wake of a 19-8 season, his agreement symbolized the University of Hawaii’s attempts to have the best of both contractual worlds — coaches under long-term deals and an avenue to lessen financial exposure in case of a buyout.

Under terms of the May 31 agreement, should UH make a coaching change before the July 31, 2021 expiration of the contract, the school could be able to reduce the buyout based upon the salary of a subsequent position he might take.

While such provisions are in wide use elsewhere in college athletics, it is a new and overdue wrinkle in Manoa contracts.

For example, when Fresno State fired football coach Tim DeRuyter in 2016 with two years remaining on his contract amid what became a 1-11 season, it was on the hook for more than $3 million. But that was trimmed by approximately $1 million when DeRuyter took the defensive coordinator position at Cal several months later.

At UH, buyouts heretofore have usually meant the school paid for the whole enchilada, shelling out $344,000 to ex-football coach Norm Chow, $500,000 to dismissed basketball coach Gib Arnold (plus $200,000 in attorney fees) and $240,000 to former basketball coach Bob Nash.

The firing of football coach Greg McMackin after the 2011 season was a rare exception. McMackin, who was due a $1.1 million salary in 2012, settled for $600,000 after UH told state Sen. Donna Kim and a legislative panel it had threatened an investigation on undisclosed grounds.

UH received no relief had any of them secured other employment.

A string of athletic department buyouts — with and without cause — totaled nearly $2 million between 2010 and 2015 alone and prompted both public outrage and a rebuke from UH Regents, including former Hawaii Supreme Court Associate Justice Simeon Acoba Jr.

Under the new contract terms, dismissed coaches would be required to furnish UH with copies of income tax returns and would be prohibited from “volunteer” or “trial” arrangements “utilizing deferred or partially deferred compensation arrangements.”

Left unspecified is whether they would be required to to seek a minimum number of employment opportunities during the term of the buyout. For example, when UH advertised for candidates to replace Chow, some applicants did so because, under their buyouts, they were required to apply for jobs.

Lessening UH’s financial exposure is a consideration as athletic detector David Matlin has gone about tying up coaches on a series of long-term deals. In addition to Wade’s two-year extension, UH announced baseball coach Mike Trapasso is getting a multi-year extension (Matlin has yet to say if it will be a two or three years) and men’s basketball coach Eran Ganot is having his deal extended by two years to a five-year contract.

Indications are their contracts will also have buyout mitigating clauses as UH seeks to standardize contracts.

“In the end, our goal is to have great teachers on and off the field for our student athletes. I believe this will help us to accomplish this goal by giving us more agility to hire and retain quality coaches,” Matlin said in an email response to questions from the Star-Advertiser. “In the end, we need to steward our resources effectively and long term contracts will be used when appropriate.”

Most effective, of course, is hiring coaches who don’t need to be bought out.