[Florida State University] decided to fire Willie Taggart after a year-and-a-half and pay him nearly $20 million NOT to coach for the four years remaining on his contract. That was followed up by the Arkansas Razorbacks firing Chad Morris in less than two years and having to pay him more than $10 million NOT to coach. This is on top of the $12 million in buyout money the Hogs are still paying their previously fired coach, Bret Bielema…
[W]hen did it become OK for public educational institutions to simply fritter away millions of dollars like this? Think about it: In what other profession could you cost your company $17 million over two years — which is essentially what Arkansas AD Hunter Yurachek did by hiring and firing Morris — and keep your job? Can you believe Arkansas will actually end up paying $17 million for a coach who never won a conference game?…
Why, for example, did Tennessee feel the need to hire Jeremy Pruitt and give him a six-year contract worth nearly $4 million a year. Couldn’t the Vols have signed him Pruitt to, say, a four-year contract worth $2 million a year? …
Before hiring Pruitt, Tennessee fired its former coach Butch Jones and had to pay him an $8 million buyout. Why? Because Tennessee extended Jones’ contract after he went — wait for it! — 6-6 in his second season…
Why did the Florida Gators extend Jim McElwain’s contract in June 2017 and fire him four months later? When McElwain was hired away from Colorado State, the Gators had to pay most of McElwain’s $7.5 million contract buyout with his former team. When McElwain was fired, he negotiated another $7.5 million buyout settlement from the Gators. In other words, the Gators paid millions for McElwain both coming and going.
November 18th, 2019 at 7:00PM
I tried to get my ex to pay me NOT to be her husband. Didn’t work out…
November 18th, 2019 at 11:54PM
charlie: LOL.
November 19th, 2019 at 9:55AM
They will tell you that it isn’t really taxpayer money, since boosters cough up a lot of it. Also, you must be a KKK member or something, because our football team is really diverse, and we cannot get that diversity if we have a loser of a coach. How long have you hated minorities anyway? Aren’t you ashamed to take away their one shot at a decent life by cheaping out on a coach and his staff?
November 19th, 2019 at 1:23PM
tp: WAY familiar with those arguments and many others like them. Booster money that could be used for academic purposes is pissed away on buyouts. And listen to what players who didn’t graduate and didn’t make it to the big-time have to say about the decent life they got as a result of playing football at some school for a couple of years. You get a shot at a decent life if you go to a school that makes a serious effort to educate you.