College football's biggest debacle isn't in Big Ten. It's in College Station, Texas, where they have $75 million to burn
College football's biggest debacle is at Texas A&M
The problem, all $75 million of it, in Aggieland is Texas-sized and makes anything happening in Michigan or Minnesota seem small-time.
www.startribune.com
Texas A&M — tired of its secondary status in comparison to the Texas Longhorns — lured 38-year-old Jackie Sherrill as its coach away from the University of Pittsburgh.
Sherrill's contract would total $1.6 million for six years, an unheard-of average of $267,000 per season. The Aggies also added the title "athletic director'' to make the contract more palatable.
Sports Illustrated wrote about the contract under the headline: "Jackie Hits The Jackpot.'' The deal was described as "breathtaking.''
...Four decades after Sherrill seemed to break the bank at $267,000 per year, P.J. Fleck is generally filling two-thirds of the seats in smallish Huntington Bank Stadium, losing back-to-back games to lowly Illinois and lower-yet Purdue, and making $6 million annually to coach the Gophers.
...Rated No. 10 in the Associated Press preseason poll, with Gary Kubiak as a senior quarterback, Aggieland didn't get what was anticipated on opening night.
Those sneaky visitors had a not-yet-famous sophomore quarterback, a smallish fellow named Doug Flutie, and BC routed the Aggies, 38-16.
...Sherrill offered a quote familiar to the current generation of Gophers fans: Jackie said not to blame the players, it was on him...
...A&M's Board of Regents, in a clandestine meeting, approved the firing of Jimbo Fisher and the buyout payment in his contract of $75 million. Two days later, his team defeated Mississippi State, 51-10, to get to 6-4 for the season, and then Jimbo received the happy news of a full buyout — with no discount if he decides to take another job.
Local sports scene poo pooh'ing PJ Fleck.