If you wonder why I feel like most college athletic directors are generally clueless when it comes to hiring/firing decisions, here are just a few recent snapshots to ponder:
https://twitter.com/38Godfrey/status/1204161750783971334
Hard to argue with this conclusion:
Does this really strike you as a pattern of guys who have the first clue as to what they’re doing? Colorado State’s probably the closest to being rational, but, then again, Corch as a consultant? Only thing he’s got insight on is that he had a couple of those guys on his staffs. I’m sure he’s gonna step right up and say he made a mistake hiring them.
Mandel’s also right about this.
Ordinarily I’d say clueless and pressured is no way to go through life, son, but this is college football we’re talking about. If things don’t work out, they’ll just pay the buyout and make the same mistakes again in hopes that they get lucky next time around.
Get The Picture 
I would amend your last statement to include that they will pressure fans to contribute more money to pay the buy-outs. More post season and away tickets to folks that pay the buyouts!
LikeLike
The problem is for schools like CSU they can’t raise the money for the buyouts.
LikeLike
CSU manages their buyouts though. They raked McElwain over the coals before agreeing to let him go to Florida and they negotiated Bobo’s buyout down to $1.85 million which is close to a year’s salary.
LikeLike
I wonder what the leverage was there? In other words, why would Bobo agree to anything less than what his contract says he was owed? I’m not suggesting anything nefarious, I’m just curious as there had to be some reason. Maybe the contract contained offset language, but the reduced amount was guaranteed in full, something like that.
LikeLike
We prefer to use positive terms with our patrons. In this case Gaskill, you would be “buying IN” to Georgia’s future success.
BTW, have you bought in to your sugar bowl tickets yet ?
LikeLike
The faster you have to make decisions, and the more you make under pressure, the more likely you make a mistake. Doesn’t mean you can’t get it right, but “measure twice, cut once” seems to have some relevance.
Everyone can’t go undefeated, or win their conference yearly. I didn’t go to tech, but I am pretty confident the math supports me here.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Which is why the whole thing is getting gross. Win it all or bust ! While I don’t personally believe that, if that’s the way its going, I’m less inclined to buy into “games that don’t matter.” The problem is that you could whittle down the whole thing to not mattering if that’s the outlook.
Playoff selection / coaching carousel Sunday is becoming a concrete event among sports journos. It’s all fun in a sense, but the timing of it is horrible if not anything. When everyone is moving on with one game left to play that tells me (a) none of what we worked so hard for really mattered that much and certainly (b) our last game and presumed celebration stage for the season means nothing to anyone. My poor Dad, been buying Memphis season tickets since 1964. Wins their first conference title in history and gets their first major bowl bid in history and the coach is in Tallahassee the next morning. Can’t blame the coach but I can blame the system. It’s not right. It dampens the joy. And these things may start killing the goose.
LikeLike
Rest assured, it is cost-effective to wait for your staff to take external offers instead of releasing them for cause.
#BRINGBACKONEYEARCONTRACTS #COMMITTOTHEG
LikeLike
With this much $$$ being tossed around for coaches it’s past time to give the players their share.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Colorado State interviewed Dave Aranda and thought Sgt. Carter was a better candidate. If Aranda found an offensive guy (cough, cough … Joe Brady … cough, cough) to go with him, he could build a program that could be hell on wheels.
If I were a Power 5 program looking for a guy who could be the next Kirby (I know, I know for those who are on the ledge), Aranda may be at the very top of the list.
LikeLike
Not sure CSU can afford to pay Aranda more than LSU pays him.
LikeLike
I saw that after doing the quick research. I’m still surprised that a Power 5 program hasn’t made a run at him.
LikeLike
The NCAA and college athletic administrators: the greed of a pimp, the business savvy of a bureaucrat.
LikeLiked by 1 person
What is an Eliah Drinnkwitz?
LikeLike
A Polish cocktail, consumed at family/holiday get togethers
Ingredients: – four fingers of vodka, a dash of Jagermeister & cucumber
LikeLiked by 1 person
I would drink that.
LikeLike
Until the fans say “enough” and stop sending in the money and buying the tickets, there is zero motivation for ADs to change the way they do things. I know some will say tv money is the driving factor but if the stadiums are half full the networks won’t be paying the big bucks to show games when it is obvious there is not much interest.
The day of reckoning is coming. Young alumni don’t donate and buy season tickets like the older alumni did. The increased cost of attending a game has really damaged the value proposition of buying season tickets and young people don’t want to make the financial and time commitment to season tickets. Another factor is demographics. More and more schools have majority female student bodies and females do not buy season tickets as much as male alumni.
I don’t think there will be a collapse in the next 10 years but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a completely different, much smaller, college football animal in the next 20.
LikeLike
I’m telling my kids to get into coaching.
LikeLike
Before that, they need to get into being “an influencer”
Whatever that is.
LikeLike
Rest assured, it is much easier to turn the process over one to your competitors’ executive search firms.
No muss. No fuss. No blame.
#THATSYETANOTHERBULLDOGPOINTOFPRIDE
LikeLike
I’m sure Bobo had had enough of McGoofy and that probably meant he had a guaranteed job at SC prior to the buyout negotiations. Bobo is in poor health, just look at him. He was just looking to get back close to home. He turned down a raise last year so he was ready to leave. Muschamp can’t be crazy enough to keep letting his OC kill his career again. He is going to give the keys to a guy he trusts and it will be interesting to see the results.
LikeLike
OPM BABY! (other people’s money)
LikeLike
This is not a matter of ADs being “clueless”. This is a known principle of Economics. It is the same reason that CEO pay is wonky. They way that you signal to other people (fans, croots, etc) that you have hired a better coach than a competitor? You pay them more money than the competitor pays their guy, and you let everyone know the amount. What would people think if Mizzou paid Drinnkwicz 1.5M while their next door neighbor Arky pays their hire twice as much? Is he half as good? If he his better than Arky’s guy, why does he make half?
The ADs and the Boards of Directors hiring HCs / CEOs are in a weird situation where there isn’t a real market process and the matter of perception is more important that the guy’s actual worth. The amount you pay your coach instead servers as a proxy as for projecting where you think your program should be in the pecking order. Mizzour paid Barry Odom just over 3M a year. That as good for 47th highest and peers with Georgia Tech, Mississippi State, and Pitt. Moving to 4M would put them at ~#28. That means they are signalling that they intended to project themselves as peers with Tennessee, Virginia Tech, and Wisconsin.
If an AD wants to signal that the intention is to be a Top-10 team, it will cost him 6M+ per year.
LikeLike