It’s one of the best scenes in any sports movie: Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane (played by Brad Pitt) is trying to get David Justice (portrayed by Stephen Bishop) to be a leader.
“No, I’m not paying you seven (million dollars),” Beane says in the scene. “The Yankees are paying half your salary. That’s what the New York Yankees think of you. They’re paying you three and a half million dollars to play against them.”
Whether or not the scene actually happened is irrelevant. The truth of contract buyouts could not have been more starkly or truthfully portrayed. Almost any player or coach worth hiring has a buyout clause in his contract, usually one that is worth an eyebrow-raising sum of money, so that the bosses have to think twice before firing someone.
You can chalk this up to cutthroat agents or starstruck administrators, but whatever the reason, the effect is unassailable: Teams have a financial incentive not to let somebody go just because they have one bad year. That is the reason coaches like Will Muschamp at Florida and Todd Grantham at Georgia will almost certainly be back for their respective 2014 campaigns.
Muschamp is perched on the hottest seat in college football, not only because of the Gators’ shocking loss to FCS Georgia Southern and the losing season it guaranteed, but also because of comments he made suggesting that Florida fans “just chill.”
With six straight losses going into the final game against No. 2-ranked Florida State and a number of ignominious firsts to his credit -- first non-sanctioned season the Gators are not bowl eligible since 1979; longest losing streak in 34 years; first home loss to Vanderbilt since 1946; and first loss to an FCS opponent in school history -- the drums of discontent could not be louder in Gainesville. Calls for Muschamp’s firing are being left on voicemails and in email inboxes and signs are popping up everywhere, including outside athletic director Jeremy Foley’s office.
But there are 8 million reasons for Foley to ignore the cries of the masses and keep Muschamp on for another year. That is the reported buyout of the coach’s contract. So, not only would Florida have to pay another coach at least $3- or $4 million to come on board -- probably more given the market rate for top-of-the-line coaches in the SEC -- but the university would have to pay Muschamp $8 million to coach against them.
Throw in the costs of replacing most of the assistants and the administrative turmoil that always accompanies a high-profile coaching change and suddenly the accountants are jumping in front of this moving bus and yelling “Stop!”
The same is true on a lower level with defensive coordinator Todd Grantham at Georgia. the Bulldogs are on track to give up the most points in school history this season and the most yards per game since 1994. This has, of course, brought out calls for Grantham’s ouster. His buyout would be somewhere around $850,000, a mere pittance compared with the Muschamp deal, but when you couple it with the cost of hiring a replacement -- $800- to $900,000 seems to be the going rate for good defensive coordinators in a defense-centric league -- now you’re talking about enough money to make administrators reconsider.
But that is the reason coaches have contracts. Just a couple seasons ago, Georgia had one of the best defenses in the land. The same coordinator who is now being vilified was the darling of the conference, heralded as a tough-nosed genius who had brought back the Junkyard Dawgs.
Money should never be the sole motivating factor in hiring or firing a football coach. But buyouts, and the ramifications they have on the financial future of a program, are in place to keep decision-makers sober about the process.
Nobody likes to lose, and even fewer enjoy being embarrassed in historic fashion. But nobody wants to spend seven to eight figures in a fit of anger, either. For that reason, like it or not, Georgia and Florida fans might have to put up with some familiar faces for at least one more year.
