Help me understand: Buyouts

[1bigdawg]

I don't understand how buyouts get so high.

Put yourself in this position. You are an AD at MSY for example and you are hiring an offensive coordinator to be the head coach. He is making $700,000 a year and you offer him $3 million with a four year contract. He demands (?) that the contract be paid in full if he is fired. Is he really going to turn the job down if you say no? I doubt it, but every AD in America seems to panic and say yes.

Next position: You have had a mildly disappointing year, but for recruiting purposes, you need to extend the contract. Once again, you have the choice to extend the buyout or not. If you say no, if the coach going to leave his multi-million dollar job because he does not get a big pay day if he fails at it?

This is not the Jombo Fischer situation where he had leverage or Saban or any other coach with proven success.

This is not just about MSU. I just don't get the leverage most coaches have. Please, someone, explain.

[was21]

Saban possibly started it....was thinking along the same lines as you. Would it be legally possible or viable for the NCAA to set coaches' salary caps and buyout ceilings?

[HoopsDawg]

I'll make it simple, Cohen extending Moorhead after last season was a colossal fck up. Moorhead had zero leverage. Zero.

[Todd4State]

I'll make it simple, Cohen extending Moorhead after last season was a colossal fck up. Moorhead had zero leverage. Zero.

Except the leverage we are giving him of course. Buyouts are negotiable. I guarantee you that if Joe wanted to be the head coach and Penn State and they offered him the job his buyout would be negotiated way down.

[Lord McBuckethead]

Why would it be negotiated down on our part? It would benefit us in that situation for it to be a full buyout. That is if PSU wanted to buy him off of us.

My main issue is that contracts really mean jack shit. If I sign a contract and someone wants to terminate said contract, then they owe me the balance. Like how does NFL contracts get disregarded when it is advantageous to the team. Like how does someone with a 4 year deal just get cut?

[1bigdawg]

Except the leverage we are giving him of course. Buyouts are negotiable. I guarantee you that if Joe wanted to be the head coach and Penn State and they offered him the job his buyout would be negotiated way down.

Moorhead had no leverage last year and has none this year. Reducing/Eliminating the buyout shoud be part of the deal.

[1bigdawg]

Y'all are making it all about MSU. ADs negotiate a buyout that pays the coach more when he is fired than if he leaves to move up. It makes no sense.

Then, if they do leave to move up even that gets negotiated down.

Why doesn't an AD hire someone and say "but there is no buyout if we fire you." Would a coach with confidence and one who is getting a big raise turn down the job because he had no buyout?

[yjnkdawg]

Y'all are making it all about MSU. ADs negotiate a buyout that pays the coach more when he is fired than if he leaves to move up. It makes no sense.

Then, if they do leave to move up even that gets negotiated down.

Why doesn't an AD hire someone and say "but there is no buyout if we fire you." Would a coach with confidence and one who is getting a big raise turn down the job because he had no buyout?


Because buyouts are a part of the coaching landscape now, and if you tell a potential head coaching candidate who is getting a good raise by accepting your offer (any coach for that matter) and/or his agent, but there is one stipulation, that you have a no buyout clause in the contract if he accepts your job offer, then good luck on hiring anybody as your HC.

[KB21]

These things work both ways. Most standard contracts guarantees the coach 50-75% of either the total value of their contract or value of their base compensation. The school then tacks on a 25-50% buyout clause if that coach were to leave on his own.

[Sienfield]

How the buyout works? Well MSU contracts their buyouts as well as the compliance department deals with violations.

[War Machine Dawg]

You have to pay them off for failing to do their job, which is win games. It's absurd and bad for the fans. Why do you think ticket prices are so high now? Although we've long since been an afterthought. Everyone is at the mercy of the almighty TV money.

[smootness]

Uh, because they are contracts. You can get rid of a coach before the end of the contract, but if you do, you must pay at least a portion of the amount that was agreed upon.

Sure, you can write contracts however you want. But it is a competitive industry, and if you want good coaches, you have to compete. If you keep a coach and have no buyout, then a) he probably isn't that good and b) if he leaves before the contract is up, you also get nothing.

No one is going to sign a contract where if they terminate it early, they pay but if you do, they get nothing.

[NCDawg]

Uh, because they are contracts. You can get rid of a coach before the end of the contract, but if you do, you must pay at least a portion of the amount that was agreed upon.

Sure, you can write contracts however you want. But it is a competitive industry, and if you want good coaches, you have to compete. If you keep a coach and have no buyout, then a) he probably isn't that good and b) if he leaves before the contract is up, you also get nothing.

No one is going to sign a contract where if they terminate it early, they pay but if you do, they get nothing.

Yeah, that's true, but Moorhead was not a proven head coach at a major university. We didn't know whether he was going to succeed or not. Cohen should have never agreed to an exorbitant pay-out.

[HoopsDawg]

Uh, because they are contracts. You can get rid of a coach before the end of the contract, but if you do, you must pay at least a portion of the amount that was agreed upon.

Sure, you can write contracts however you want. But it is a competitive industry, and if you want good coaches, you have to compete. If you keep a coach and have no buyout, then a) he probably isn't that good and b) if he leaves before the contract is up, you also get nothing.

No one is going to sign a contract where if they terminate it early, they pay but if you do, they get nothing.

we were competing with ourselves.