Awesome? I get your meaning, but I have to shake my head when people rejoice because we're spending even more money for a coach. I guess since fans don't receive a bill directly for his services it's lost the impact. When fans see seat prices go up, concessions go up, parking go up, etc, I hope they don't whine about it. Rejoice that we've now got to spend 4.7 million for a guy to coach a bunch of kids to play basketball. My word. It's akin to paying taxes. The fact that we don't have to write a check at the end of the year but instead the govt takes a bite every paycheck makes it something most folks ignore. They rejoice when they get a refund thinking it's free money from the govt. Pay that bill at the end of the year or better yet, in Nov right before elections and they'd damned well feel differently. Sorry for the rant. Again, not a slam on you. Just crazy that we wear spending that much money for a coach as something like a badge of honor. Like "we're UT. We pay top dollar for our coaching staffs". Just strikes me as a little...well...insane.
I get the tax day argument. If you get a refund, you gave the government an interest free loan. I know people who like to use that refund as an equivalent as an extra paycheck or two.
With that said, the increases can easily be paid for by no changes in tickets, parking, concessions.... Keeping Barnes at a higher price did multiple things.
1- It is clear he is retiring here. We do not have to worry about some buyout with him down the road as the likelihood we fire him is very small. Even if it came to a point where we did fire him, it would be most likely due to a scandal or something with cause
2- It allows Tennessee basketball to declare war on the recruiting pipelines and build em up nationally now. Barnes has no choice, but to start recruiting with the best of them. His deal sets the tone for that.
3- Losing him to UCLA for any amount of money would immediately kill attendance, recruiting, and most likely send the next two years into a complete rebuild from scratch. That would cost the program more money than it would have to keep him. Keeping him likely increases program donations. Not sure the % increase but it will be there. Had we lost him and not found a Beard/Bruce type that would be seen as homerun, I'd argue we would have seen a % decrease in program donations.
The biggest "Pro" on the board with this deal is that it stabilizes the Athletic Department's finances even more so.
As long as we have the money, we could have made Barnes the highest paid coach in the country. It doesn't matter the price to keep him knowing his window is closing in terms coaching career in the next 4-6 years. We won't have to worry about extending him because there's no chance he would leave this contract and program to rebuild. If he was interested in that, he would have made this jump to UCLA and spent the next 4-6 years using the 4-5 star pull of UCLA to try to make runs.
The people who are saying we overpaid or that we are paying for a Sweet 16 coach have no idea on the business side of what keeping Barnes does for the next 4-6 years.
And it isn't their money for the most part so it isn't like they have a legitimate gripe outside of some faux outrage talking point.