Being a head coach in college football can be brutal. You’re on the road a lot during the season and offseason. At the same time, you do get paid millions so it may be worth it. Oh and if you get fired, you still get paid millions! It’s a win-win situation!
After Notre Dame went 6-6 in 2009, they fired head coach Charlie Weis. Because his contract still had money left on it, the Fighting Irish had to pay Weis more than $16 million to settle the deal and the final payment didn’t arrive in Weis’ mailbox until the end of 2015.
After he was fired from Notre Dame, Charlie Weis was named the head coach at Kansas University in 2012. After going 6-22 over three seasons, the Jayhawks fired Weis, but still had to pay him $5.4 million. The last payment of that $5.4 million is due in December of this year.
In short, after he was fired by Notre Dame and Kansas, Weis still brought in $21.4 million. That’s a lot of money for being an unemployed bad football coach.
$21.4 million for being fired plus whatever Weis got WHEN HE WAS ACTUALLY THE HEAD COACH. Let that sink in.
USA Today did a deep dive into how hiring a college football coach is expensive and so is firing them. Some of what they uncovered is extremely interesting especially when read alongside their salary database.
The main focus of the story at the start is University of Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz. In September, the Hawkeyes signed Ferentz to a massive contract that made him set for life even if he never won a game with Iowa.
Included in Ferentz’s contract were the following provisions:
1. Even if Ferentz went 0-12 this year (which is impossible since Iowa is currently 5-3) and was fired, Iowa would still have to pay him more than $25 MILLION over monthly installments until…2026!
2. The 61-year-old is guaranteed an additional $22 million from 2021 until 2025 if he wins at least seven games between now and 2020. That means if Ferentz wins seven games each year between now and 2020 and then gets fired in 2021, he’ll bring in AT LEAST $47 million between the bonus and buyout. Oh and that doesn’t include his yearly base salary.
With all of this in mind, one has to wonder why Iowa made Ferentz almost to expensive to fire. USA Today concluded the reason why is due to rising revenues, college coaches are the ones benefiting the most. Additionally, coaches are the ones with bargaining power due to other schools also being willing to pay outrages prices for quality head coaches.
Just look at the University of Michigan. Jim Harbaugh was a solid head coach in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers and as a result, Michigan was forced to pay him over $9 million a year on his current deal. That’s more than $2 million MORE than the next highest paid coach. That’s right, Nick Saban at Alabama earns the second most, and he’s only at $6.94 million.
Oh and if for some reason Harbaugh and Saban were fired, they would make a ridiculous amount through their buyout. If Michigan and Harbaugh parted ways, the Wolverines would have to pay $25.5 million. Alabama, meanwhile, would have to pay Saban $23.3 million.
That’s what the price of winning has come to.
“There’s such tremendous pressure to generate revenues and win that basically these universities are sort of bending over contractually to get these coaches in the door,” Martin Greenberg, a Milwaukee-based sports attorney who has represented several coaches in contract negotiations, told USA Today. “Euphoria sometimes overtakes objectivity and intelligence.”
Ferentz is one of at least seven football coaches whose contracts are public enough to know they would be owed at least $20 million if they were fired. Florida State is on top of the list meaning if they fired head coach Jimbo Fisher, the Seminoles would have to pay Fisher a little over $33 million.
Compare today’s buyout numbers to 2011 and it’s shocking. In 2011, there were 15 head coaches with guaranteed buyouts of at least $8 million. In 2016? At least 33 are guaranteed that much. This is all based on the 53 public coaching contracts in the Power Five conferences that are available.
For reference sake, the Power Five schools where head coaching contract information isn’t as public include the University of Miami, Baylor University, University of Southern California, Syracuse University, and University of Pittsburgh.
While having to deal with one buyout hurts, dealing with multiple can be much much worse. Just look at the University of Kansas.
In 2001, the Jayhawks fired Head Coach Terry Allen with one year left on his deal. Since 2001, the bottom feeding Big 12 program has paid three coaches to well, not coach.
2008 was Kansas’s last winning season when it went 8-5. A year later in 2009, the Jayhawks settled for $3 million with Mark Mangino after he quit due to allegations regarding the mistreatment of players. The $3 million was much less than the $6.6 million Kansas would’ve owed Mangino if he was fired without legal cause.
After Mangino came Turner Gill, who went 5-19 over two years before he was fired in 2011. The buyout in Gill’s deal forced the Jayhawks to pay him the $6 million left on his deal.
Next came the famous Charlie Weis who was already getting paid more then $16 million until 2015 to not be the head coach at Notre Dame. Well, Weis went 6-22 from 2012 to 2014 and was fired. As a result, Kansas had to pay him $5.4 million in monthly installments that will be finished in December.
All in all, from 2009 until December of 2016, Kansas will have paid Mangino, Gill, and Weis a combined $14.4 million to not coach the Jayhawks.
When the Jayhawks replaced Weis with current head coach David Beaty, they set themselves up to avoid a fourth straight buyout mistake. If he’s fired simply for losing (which is entirely possible since Kansas is 1-18 underneath Beaty so far), the buyout is no bigger than two year’s pay in his contract, around $1.6 million total.
After that, Beaty would be required in his contract to look for “similar or related employment,” which would then reduce his buyout from Kansas by the amount of money he’s guaranteed at his new job. This provision is extremely common in college football, but also negotiable.
While that price is very beneficial to Kansas and incredibly tiny compared to the buyouts for the Sabans and of Harbaughs of the world, it’s also the price the Jayhawks are willing to pay for a not as good head coach.
“There are lots of coaches, but not all are able to win and generate money,” Greenberg said. “That’s where the leverage is.”
On top of winning, stability is also important. Players might not want to go to a school with constant turnover.
“It’s important to understand the continuity, stability, and branding that they have provided,” Agent Neil Cornrich told USA TODAY Sports. “People have grown up with Bob Stoops and Kirk Ferentz being the only coaches at their respective institutions for their entire lives. That creates substantial additional value, especially when both coaches have been so successful, on and off the field.”
Stoops at Oklahoma and Ferentz at Iowa are the two longest tenured major college football head coaches with both being at their schools since 1998.
While Stoops and Ferentz have benefited from the stability, there is one downside. The duo haven’t enjoyed the ridiculous amount of monetary success Charlie Weis has had from being an unemployed bad football coach.
