Creative financing on the Flats

When I saw the details of the deal Al Groh struck with Georgia Tech on the defensive coordinator position, I wondered why the pay structure didn’t catch his former boss’ eye.

It looks like Craig Littlepage has finally caught on.

… So, how did Georgia Tech get Groh for less than half the going rate? Virginia is making up the difference.

Groh, fired by U.Va. with two years left on his contract, has a severance package worth more than $4 million. His contract with Virginia also has a clause saying that severance paid would be reduced by whatever amount Groh made elsewhere as an assistant or head coach.

Georgia Tech, though, has agreed to pay Groh a minimum bonus of $321,000 on or before Jan. 12, 2012, “regardless whether he’s still employed by Tech,” the Journal Constitution reported.

Virginia athletic director Craig Littlepage said earlier this week that he was aware of the Journal-Constitution piece and the situation was “being reviewed.”

Pretty clever, hunh?

… Groh did not return a voice message on the subject, and Georgia Tech athletic director Dan Radakovich said by phone that the school’s policy is not “to talk about those things.”

If by “those things” he means screwing another school out of 300 large, I wouldn’t talk about it either.