Football coaching contracts are meaningless today

[Gold Rush]

I think that the coaching carousel these days are a joke. Now you have people screaming to fire the coach after two or three years (Michigan) even though they are signed for 5 and on the other hand you have guys like Lane Kiffin leaving after a year at Tennessee to go to USC.

There is getting to be less and less loyalty these days. The schools like Iowa or Penn St. who can keep their coaches for many years to build their programs who will stay even when other schools offer more money to build their programs are a goldmine. As Mason used to say, "If the phone rings, I gotta answer it." That is unfortunately what you are seeing more and more.

I would say at least we don't have to worry about teams stealing Brewster away, but teams are even going after OC Fisch even after an abysmal offensive performance this year. If Fisch leaves, I don't think ANYONE is safe to stay. We can't even keep our coordinators anymore! And don't think Brewster is a saint on this whole thing, either. The overtures by his buddies to look at the Kansas job were legitimate feelers to see if there was a mutual interest but that turned into a great embarrassment for everyone.

I think there has got to be some sort of change to the system because it is getting worse and there is too much at stake for all parties concerned. The major issue with Tim Brewster isn't how many years are left on his contract, it's what the buyout clause will be in case he gets fired next year. Then we can hire someone who if he IS successful, will probably leave after a year or two. I wonder if schools will start putting in outrageous poison pills into their contracts where if someone hires their coach after a few years into their contract, they would be compensated an outrageous amount. If someone had to pay the U of M 100 million dollars if they were to hire Tim Brewster from us, they would probably think twice about hiring him, for example.

It works both ways though and coaches want some security too. I am not sure where this is headed, but I do not like what I am seeing, lately.

 

[frozengopher]

Like I said on another thread, there is absolutely nothing or no one for a young person to look up to in college football these days. It's unfortunate to see what kind of example is being set.

 

[dpodoll68]

Gold Rush, you more or less said this in your post, but I wanted to reiterate the point. The day that universities start honoring contracts is the day that coaches stop looking around for something better. Coaches didn't start becoming mercenaries until schools started booting them right and left for daring to get less than 10 wins a season.

 

[2nd Degree Gopher]

Gold Rush, I pretty much agree with all of your comments about the lack of loyalty and how the system is a mess. I would add that how this happens says a lot about the people involved and, in some cases, their integrity. However, the idea that the contracts are meaningless is, in my view, misplaced. The contracts are being followed exactly as they are written in most cases. I haven’t seen Lane Kiffin’s contract, but from what I understand he isn’t breaking his contract with UT, but is instead exercising his right under the contract to buy it out for something like $800,000. That might make him sleazy, slimy or dishonest, but it doesn't mean he breached his contract. UT could have tried to prevent this by structuring his contract differently, like making the buyout $10M and that would (probably) keep another school from hiring him. The problem with that is that the contracts generally need to be mutual to be enforceable (or palatable to the coaches) so a school would also have to live with the $10M buyout to get rid of a coach and that’s not acceptable to most institutions. How many schools other than Notre Dame could have afforded to buyout Charlie Weis? How much heat would Joel Maturi get if Brewster's contract had a $10M buyout?

Unless by skill or by luck you find a Paterno, Ferentz, etc. who values where they are and what they earn as “enough fo me,” you are going to have this issue. It sucks to be on the lower end of the food chain, but that’s where we are and we have a lot of company in that regard.

 

[Goldmember]

These jobs are worth so much money it has completely changed how people look at them.

Coaching used to be seen as a job or a career, even at the highest levels. Now, for career purposes, these coaches are just celebs ... like actors. Once they make it into the club, with just a couple years of work they are set-up financially for a lifetime. The rest is, what they call in Hollywood, "F@#$ You Money".

This is especially true for Lane Kiffin because he's so young. He has already accumulated enough personal wealth with his last few gigs that he and his family could be content if he were to never coach or work again. But he's only 33, so he could actually continue making this kind of money for another 30-40 years.

If a person doesn't really have a need for the moeny, they start behaving differently.