I simply do not understand the buyout culture in college football...

#1
volmaniac18

volmaniac18

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#1
From a coach perspective: The higher the buyout, the less incentive the coach has for pushing through adverse times. It is easier to just pack up shop, take the hefty buyout, and go somewhere else or work for the media.

From an AD's perspective: I am negotiating how much I am going to pay a coach when his performance becomes so poor he is compromising the integrity of our program.

This goes for all coaches, top to bottom, and I just do not understand it. Aside from Meyer and Saban, no one should have that much job security in college football.
 
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#2
#2
I think another problem is offering contract extensions well before the current contract expires. Heck I would wait until the year it expires to work on that. I get that you can sometimes get burned because you could have locked a guy up long term for less, but you also get burned with fat buyouts for a guy that didn't pan out but had a couple good seasons.
 
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#3
#3
The buyout is more to protect the school from other schools swooping in. That and agents are good at their job.
 
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#4
#4
It's a supply and demand issue. There just aren't enough quality candidates to cover the demand for HC jobs. And, with the Ad's firing triggers just getting quicker, that isn't going to change. For any given year, the top HC candidates are going to have a bunch of options on where they go. As long as that is the case, they are going to have the power to negotiate an attractive parachute for themselves if things don't go well.

In terms of the early extensions, it is a recruiting tool. Coaches argue, and it may or may not be true, that it is difficult to recruit players when the player doesn't even know if you are going to be around in a year or two. The status of the coach's contract is a pretty good indicator of his security.
 
#5
#5
It's a very difficult, short term job and agents get paid for a reason.
 
#6
#6
If Butch manages his money right...he's set for life. Depends on how opulent his lifestyle is...but it doesn't help his career failing at UT. Look at Dooley. Receivers coach w Dallas isn't the worst gig in the world...but no one was knocking on his door to be a head coach anywhere after his gig here.

I think Butch will be a hot candidate for a mid-major job....or for a program down on it's luck. He ran a clean program for the most part...so that will help him, but that's if he even wants to coach right away. He CAN afford to take a few years off with all that buyout money.
 
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#7
#7
I think it is absurd to extend contracts well in advance of them expiring. If the coach wins a SEC or National Championship, then I get it. Short of far exceeding expectations, I would not extend a contract 2 or 3 years before it expires.
 
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#8
#8
I think it's crazy, as well. We're getting a crap return on our investments, too. If you don't believe me, look how easily our last three fired coaches have found or will find a quality college HC position.
 
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#9
#9
djohnnyg said:
If Butch manages his money right...he's set for life. Depends on how opulent his lifestyle is...but it doesn't help his career failing at UT. Look at Dooley. Receivers coach w Dallas isn't the worst gig in the world...but no one was knocking on his door to be a head coach anywhere after his gig here.

I think Butch will be a hot candidate for a mid-major job....or for a program down on it's luck. He ran a clean program for the most part...so that will help him, but that's if he even wants to coach right away. He CAN afford to take a few years off with all that buyout money.
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College coaching is a pretty tight network. Unless you're just a complete a-hole that other coaches cannot stand and have black-listed, a college coach will land on his feet pretty easily. Whether it's as a head coach at a smaller stop or as a position coach somewhere, you're not going to see many college football coaches on the roadside with "will work for food" signs.
 
#10
#10
volmaniac18 said:
From a coach perspective: The higher the buyout, the less incentive the coach has for pushing through adverse times. It is easier to just pack up shop, take the hefty buyout, and go somewhere else or work for the media.

From an AD's perspective: I am negotiating how much I am going to pay a coach when his performance becomes so poor he is compromising the integrity of our program.

This goes for all coaches, top to bottom, and I just do not understand it. Aside from Meyer and Saban, no one should have that much job security in college football.
Click to expand...

The problem with UT negotiating is the buyouts aren't reciprocal (The buyout for the coach to leave is low ala Lane while the buyout to fire coach is high). The lack of reciprocity is a concession to keep starting salary lower.
 
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#11
#11
jps2194 said:
Short of far exceeding expectations, I would not extend a contract 2 or 3 years before it expires.
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.... And you'd find yourself losing as everybody else used that to recruit against you. It'd go something like..... "Why would you sign somewhere that won't even commit to who your coach will be your Junior year?"
 
#12
#12
Buyouts aren't as big a deal as people think. They are paid in monthly installments over several years and mitigated by coach's salary at wherever he ends up.

So if we're paying Butch $100k a month and he gets a job somewhere else that pays $75k a month, that means we only have to pay him $25k a month. (it's easier to look at it on a monthly basis).
 
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#13
#13
volfannbama said:
The buyout is more to protect the school from other schools swooping in. That and agents are good at their job.
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Jones’ “buyout”, at least as it pertains to his firing yesterday, was a liquidated damages provision to protect him from being fired “without cause” by the university. It also comes with language that Jones has a duty to mitigate his own damages (meaning he must try to find a similar job and UT is only responsible for the difference between that pay, and his buyout.

That liquidated damages language is to guarantee that a coach has time to do what he wants or a golden parachute should the school not be willing to give him the time they originally agreed to.

I’m other words, buyouts for termination due to something that falls within the contractual scope of “without cause” are really used more as insulation between the coach and angry donors/fans that often move the AD to act. You can also extrapolate from that the rough value given to the fan bases expectations as a function of the over-all value of the coach on the open market.
 
#14
#14
volmaniac18 said:
From a coach perspective: The higher the buyout, the less incentive the coach has for pushing through adverse times. It is easier to just pack up shop, take the hefty buyout, and go somewhere else or work for the media.

From an AD's perspective: I am negotiating how much I am going to pay a coach when his performance becomes so poor he is compromising the integrity of our program.

This goes for all coaches, top to bottom, and I just do not understand it. Aside from Meyer and Saban, no one should have that much job security in college football.
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Totally agree.
 
#15
#15
volmaniac18 said:
From a coach perspective: The higher the buyout, the less incentive the coach has for pushing through adverse times. It is easier to just pack up shop, take the hefty buyout, and go somewhere else or work for the media.

From an AD's perspective: I am negotiating how much I am going to pay a coach when his performance becomes so poor he is compromising the integrity of our program.

This goes for all coaches, top to bottom, and I just do not understand it. Aside from Meyer and Saban, no one should have that much job security in college football.
Click to expand...

I would suggest you get ready for some major disappointment because the buyout for the next guy is going to be massive if he is anything near what this fan base wants. There is no way that any of the major candidates will leave their current schools or bypass Florida or the other jobs coming on the market to come to a school which is basically saying at the outset we're already thinking of what it's going to cost when we fire you. And if that coach does come, you can pretty well expect him to leave for the next comparable job that offers a decent buyout.
 
#17
#17
volfannbama said:
The buyout is more to protect the school from other schools swooping in. That and agents are good at their job.
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Not the way TN does it. It's the opposite. Butch is paid more if he is fired without cause than UT gets if he leaves for another school. We just don't have the right people reviewing these contracts. There are many things we could do differently in the contracts to better protect UT and the tax payer. It's almost like the coache's agent sent UT a contract and said sign here if you want me.
 
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#19
#19
The problem isn't with contract law. The problem is that our University has employed several people who are extremely bad at practicing it.
 
#20
#20
volmaniac18 said:
From a coach perspective: The higher the buyout, the less incentive the coach has for pushing through adverse times. It is easier to just pack up shop, take the hefty buyout, and go somewhere else or work for the media.

From an AD's perspective: I am negotiating how much I am going to pay a coach when his performance becomes so poor he is compromising the integrity of our program.

This goes for all coaches, top to bottom, and I just do not understand it. Aside from Meyer and Saban, no one should have that much job security in college football.
Click to expand...

don't feel bad...Dave Hart didn't understand it either.
 
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#21
#21
Jones should have been fired "for cause" when he started telling recruits to find another place to go shortly before he was fired.
 
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#22
#22
I think the best thing that could happen for this University would be to just hire Jimmy Sexton as our AD.
 
#23
#23
I read somewhere that Saban doesn't have a buy-out. A "Pay me a lot to win and if I lose, fire me" sort of a thing. I would be interested in knowing if that's true though.
 
#24
#24
Knox-a-rue said:
I read somewhere that Saban doesn't have a buy-out. A "Pay me a lot to win and if I lose, fire me" sort of a thing. I would be interested in knowing if that's true though.
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Saban has a huge buyout in his contract.

"If Alabama fires Saban without cause, it would owe him a buyout of as much as four years' worth of his base salary and the "talent fee" that is consideration for various TV/radio and endorsement rights -- a total of $26.9 million."

Nick Saban to be paid $11.125 million this season after Alabama contract extension
 
#25
#25
andywilson001 said:
Buyouts aren't as big a deal as people think. They are paid in monthly installments over several years and mitigated by coach's salary at wherever he ends up.

So if we're paying Butch $100k a month and he gets a job somewhere else that pays $75k a month, that means we only have to pay him $25k a month. (it's easier to look at it on a monthly basis).
Click to expand...

As I understand it, Butch's contract was negotiated by another agent. I heard Sexton comment he would never have a buyout that could be offset with another job. I think most are a set buyout amount and it isn't lowered by another salary.
 
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