College football coaching buyouts: A Growing Issue

The money in this sport is amazing

The 2016 Arizona Wildcats football campaign has been a tumultuous one with the fanbase questioning head coach Rich Rodriguez’s job commitment and security. The former Michigan head coach flirted with the South Carolina job last year and this year’s team is on the precipice of not qualifying for a bowl game for the first time in his Wildcat tenure. Conclusions can be drawn that a change at the top may be in order. However Athletic Director Greg Byrne shot down that notion earlier this month.

While it seems like a good idea to make a coaching switch, the contract buyouts are increasingly becoming a problem. Today’s head coaching agreements are heavily loaded with guarantees for five years and beyond that are a byproduct of the industry recruiting practices.

Armed with long-term job security, head coaches promise that they will be on campus for the entire college career of new incoming freshmen. Recruiting, agents, and predicting future success based on recent performance has ballooned the industry payoffs.

This presents a growing issue in the college football coaching ranks as schools are now having to deal with exorbitant exit fees with a new image of tightening the purse strings on the next new hire. USA Today documents universities and their coaching buyout blunders that are causing schools to rethink their hiring and firing processes.

Rodriguez is under contract through 2020 and Arizona would be on the hook for anywhere between $7 million - $9 million; a hard nut to stomach and something the Wildcat faithful might want to think about before calling for his head.

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