June Jones might decide as early as tomorrow whether he will become Southern Methodist University's next head football coach.

Jones, who completed his ninth season as the University of Hawai'i's head coach with the Jan. 1 Sugar Bowl, was scrambling to depart this morning for Dallas, where he will meet with officials of the Conference USA school.

Beginning at mid-morning tomorrow, Jones will meet with the SMU president, search committee, athletic director and boosters, according to Leigh Steinberg, Jones' agent. Jones also will tour the Dallas campus.

According to published reports, SMU is prepared to offer Jones a five-year contract with an annual base salary between $1.7 million and $2 million.

Jones said he has not received an official offer from SMU.

"I'm going down there to meet with them, talk with them and try to make that decision," Jones told The Advertiser yesterday.

SMU has scheduled a news conference for Monday.

While SMU maneuvered to woo Jones, UH officials still had not made an offer to Jones until Thursday night. And that offer — a base salary of $1.1 million — was made in an e-mail from UH athletic director Herman Frazier to Steinberg, who is based in California. Steinberg will join Jones in Dallas.

Jones earns a base salary of $800,016 — half of which is paid by donors — on a contract that expires June 30, the last day of the school's fiscal year. But Steinberg said Jones has fulfilled his obligation by coaching the fifth season of a five-year contract extension signed in 2003.

Since then, Jones has had a winning record in four of the five seasons, including four bowl appearances and 11-3 and 12-1 records the past two seasons.

Steinberg received UH's permission Dec. 24 to listen to offers from other schools.

Two days later, Steinberg notified Frazier, through an e-mail, that Jones received a time-sensitive offer. Frazier was asked if UH would like to submit a proposal. UH's only offer did not come until Thursday night.

On Tuesday, the day of the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, Jones was asked to book a non-stop flight from Honolulu to Dallas for today. "I needed to go down and meet them and see them," he said of SMU officials.

But as of last night Jones was having difficulty booking a reservation and was exploring different travel plans.

Asked if money would be a factor in his decision, Jones said SMU's proposal "is an opportunity I have to look at."

Jones met with UH President David McClain Thursday evening. Yesterday, he met with Frazier and then with Virginia Hinshaw, UH-Manoa chancellor.

After meeting with Hinshaw, Jones, while leaving Hawai'i Hall, said: "I'm not here for them to make an offer. We talked about a lot of other stuff."

Asked about reports that SMU imposed a deadline, Jones said: "Leigh's kind of handled that whole thing. To be quite honest, we haven't discussed all of that kind of stuff."

Steinberg said no deadline was issued.

Several schools, notably Georgia Tech, have inquired indirectly about Jones in past years. But since signing with UH in December 1998, this is the first time he will have a face-to-face interview with a prospective employer.

SMU has had a storied past. The Doak Walker Award, given to college football's most outstanding running back, is named after the Mustangs' Heisman Trophy winner. The "Pony Express" running back tandem of Eric Dickerson and Craig James led the Mustangs in the 1980s.

But in 1987, SMU's football program received the so-called "death penalty" after committing numerous NCAA rules violations. The Mustangs never returned to past glory after reinstating football in 1989.

Jones, meanwhile, led the greatest single-season turnaround in NCAA history. He inherited a team that went 0-12 in 1998. A year later, the Warriors were 9-4, completing their season with a victory over Oregon State in the O'ahu Bowl. The Warriors had Division I-A's only unbeaten regular season in 2007.

Phil Bennett was fired Oct. 28 as the Mustangs' coach. SMU athletic director Steve Orsini has raised about $10 million to attract a new head coach.

Now Jones must decide whether he will be Bennett's successor. "It's definitely a hard decision," he said. "It's a very hard decision."

Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.