As Auburn decision-makers wrestle with whether to keep basketball coach Bruce Pearl and whom to hire to succeed Jay Jacobs as athletics director, another issue should be on their radar in the glow of the football team's 40-17 destruction of Georgia.

What are they going to do about Gus Malzahn's contract?

That subject has escaped public notice as the Tigers have moved squarely into the national championship discussion at No. 6 in the latest playoff committee rankings, but the industry is aware of one key fact about Malzahn's deal.

It has only three years remaining after this season. The last adjustment, which he signed in April of 2016, was a one-year extension through Dec. 31, 2020. He's making $4.725 million a year through the remainder of the deal.

That means Malzahn is under contract for three more seasons in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

It's almost unheard of for a major college coach to enter a season in that situation so it seems inevitable that reps for the coach and the school will be talking about an extension at the conclusion of the regular season, if not sooner.

Complicating matters is next week's Iron Bowl, which will decide the SEC West title and give the winner the inside track toward a playoff berth. Beat Alabama for the first time since 2013, and Malzahn will be in his strongest position in years.

Lose to Alabama for the fourth straight year, and it'll be Auburn's longest losing streak in the series since dropping nine straight from 1973-81. How would that change the mood among Auburn's power brokers?

They tend to be emotional in either direction. Before Malzahn completed his first regular season, they agreed to give him a raise and an extension after Auburn beat Georgia with the Prayer in Jordan-Hare, though the deal wasn't announced until the day before the Tigers beat Missouri in the 2013 SEC Championship Game.

Adding a bit of urgency to this situation is the new early signing period of Dec. 20-22. It's almost a certainty that, if Malzahn and Auburn don't agree on an extension before then, rival coaches will try to use that information against the Tigers on the recruiting trail.

The win over Georgia, which was No. 1 in the playoff rankings at the time, snapped a six-game losing streak to top-10 teams dating to 2014. That resounding victory has shifted the fan discussion of Malzahn's future in his favor.

It appears far more likely than not he'll be back for his sixth season at Auburn in 2018 - unless he decides to leave for another job. One theory says there's one job that might appeal to Malzahn - his home-state University of Arkansas, where he got his introduction to major college coaching - and major staff drama - as offensive coordinator in 2006.

At the moment, Arkansas has a coach in Bret Bielema. What it doesn't have is a full-time athletics director. The school announced Wednesday that it's fired Jeff Long, which can't be good news for Bielema. Long hired Bielema, and Bielema praised his old boss on the SEC teleconference Wednesday.

With Long gone, Bielema appears to be on his way out as well.

Would Arkansas target Malzahn if/when it does fire Bielema? It would make sense. If offered the job, would Malzahn leave Auburn to restart his clock at a familiar place in the same division?

Seriously?

That rumor is all the rage, but talk to people close to Malzahn, and they say what he's said for years. He really likes coaching at Auburn. He knows what's possible there, like winning the SEC title - which Arkansas has never done - and the national title - which Arkansas has done once in 1964 in the days of multiple champions.

The Hogs won the Football Writers Association of America title that year. Alabama won the AP and UPI crowns.

As Auburn's offensive coordinator and head coach, Malzahn has been a part of two SEC championships, two national championship games and one national title. He has the Tigers in the hunt for both rings again.

Malzahn, with only one year as a college head coach at Arkansas State, and Bielema, with a solid track record at Wisconsin, were hired at the same time to clean up messes at their current jobs. Malzahn is 43-20 overall and 24-15 in the SEC. Bielema is 29-32 and 11-27.

Bottom line: Auburn is a far better job than Arkansas.

Another factor could make staying at Auburn more attractive for Malzahn. Jay Jacobs is playing out the string as a lame-duck AD. His successor is expected to be in place sooner rather than later.

It's been reported here that the head coach and his boss have had a fractured relationship for some time. Insiders say Malzahn grew weary of Jacobs' tendency to meddle in different situations, including the hiring of assistant coaches.

Now the Jacobs issue is going away, Malzahn is on stronger footing than he's been in some time and the Tigers are an Iron Bowl win away from the SEC Championship Game.

All the coach and the school have to do sometime soon is renew their vows, but this being Auburn, things aren't always as easy as they could be.