So, that roughly translates into $580k per year. Doubtful he would decide to sit out three years and even more doubtful he would leave a New Mexico job offer of $800K+/year to take $580k/yr from the U.
Agree it was doubtful he would do that. Particularly given that the U was not required to make up a difference if say Pitino had decided to accept an offer paying less than $580k/year. (Right?)
That is what Bo Pelini did after being fired from Nebraska. He took a very low end head job at FCS Youngstown State, just to force Nebraska to have to pay out as much of the difference as possible.
The only way Pitino would have to pay the $500k is if he chose to leave for a job while still being employed by the U. He didn't and wasn't. You simply fail to understand the basic premise of a contract
No, I understand it perfectly well.
I simply disagree that Coyle and Pitino just walked off, exactly per the terms of what was in Pitino's working contract.
Per the OP article:
The University of Minnesota owes no buyout money to former Gophers men's basketball coach Richard Pitino under the terms of their separation agreement, obtained Wednesday by the Star Tribune.
The university fired Pitino on March 15, one day before he accepted a position as New Mexico's coach. Pitino's contract with the Gophers called for a $1.75 million buyout if fired before April 30, but it included a provision that stated those payments would cease once Pitino found comparable employment, including a Division I coaching job.
The separation agreement says the U doesn't have to pay any buyout for parting ways with Pitino, but he also doesn't owe the university the $500,000 termination fee in his contract for departing to another school before April 30.
It was a new agreement. It was just obtained by the STrib last week.
The whole thing was orchestrated by Coyle and Pitino, who as I understand were on very good personal terms during Richard's tenure here that overlapped with Coyle as AD.
And that agreement specifically spelled out what I highlighted above in bold.
Surely, you understand that a previous contract can be overridden by a new contract, in which both sides agree to that. And/or, new terms can be appended to existing contracts. Right?
Another point that supports that Pitino wasn't "fired" in the normal sense: he was allowed to finish out the season.
If Coyle had had it up to here with Pitino, he would've dismissed him from the team with a couple weeks left and let Conroy finish it out. Agree?
That is
not to say that he wasn't fired, in the sense of he (Pitino) wanted to stay here and keep being the head coach and Coyle said no. Of course that is true. No one is arguing otherwise.
