FBS schools spent over $533.6 million in dead money over 10+ years

[knapplc]

ESPN researched dead money in college sports. Nebraska is near the top.

 

 

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/32552130/schools-spent-5336-million-dead-money

 

During his tenure as Nebraska's chancellor from April 2001 to June 2016, Harvey Perlman signed off on the Cornhuskers firing football coach Frank Solich and the hiring and firing of Bill Callahan, Bo Pelini and Mike Riley, who was fired more than a year after Perlman left.

 

"We have a lot of football coaches on our salary," Perlman recently told ESPN, chuckling. "Yeah, it was horrible. I didn't like it. And of course you get a lot of public flak for it, which I did. But as I say, it's part of the competitive context in which you're operating. If you're not going to do it, you're not going to get coaches."

 

Auburn ($31.2 million) and Nebraska ($25.8 million) led the way in dead money payments, followed by Texas ($21.5 million), Ole Miss ($20.4 million) and Kansas ($20 million).

 

The Cornhuskers also hired and fired men's basketball coach Doc Sadler, and women's basketball coach Connie Yori resigned under pressure during Perlman's tenure. He said the obligation of a coach's buyout never figured into whether or not he or she should be terminated.

 

"I regarded the payouts we made as we changed coaches as just the cost of doing business," Perlman said. "It was just built into the deal."

 

Perlman said competitive forces and public image forced the university to agree to larger and larger contracts with more generous buyouts for coaches. He admitted the salaries and guaranteed contracts were out of line, but said "competition drives you to do what you have to do."

 

"There were both the terms of the agreement and the message that it sent," Perlman said. "They both were important if the coach was going to be successful. ... It's about where you sat in the Big Ten because you were going to have to recruit. Recruits would look at this and say, 'They're not paying you very much and they must not respect you very much, so you must not be a good coach.'"

 

TOP 10 SCHOOLS

Chasing glory and championships is expensive in college sports. Just ask the biggest spenders in the FBS, who have combined to dole out more than $205 million in dead money since 2010. If your last mistake is indeed your best teacher, then these schools have failed time and time again.

Auburn

$31.2M

Talk about being all-in. More than $18 million (and counting) has been paid to Gene Chizik and Gus Malzahn.

Nebraska

$25.8M

Bo Pelini and Mike Riley were fired within a year of extensions. The cost for those mistakes: about $12.8 million.

 

 

 

 

 

[Toe]

Moos paid Bo a lump sum shortly after he came in, just to get it off the books.

[ColoradoHusk]

There's always money in the banana stand.

[NoLongerN]

In our case, the two-year extension of Frost was not a "cost of doing business".  It was the stupidity of insanity and the pride of a Ponzi scheme mentality to puff up the stock and sell that 8-14 would soon change.  Ha ha.   If Scott can go 1-2 to end the season he will have "improved" 16-28.  That's the "progress".  Hope Scott can win a game ... otherwise their is no "progress" but regression. 

[knapplc]

 

[GSG]

4 minutes ago, knapplc said:

 

 

 

That Tweet from Rittenberg says a lot... that @teachercd is Adam Rittenberg! 

[ZRod]

8 hours ago, BigRedN said:

In our case, the two-year extension of Frost was not a "cost of doing business".  It was the stupidity of insanity and the pride of a Ponzi scheme mentality to puff up the stock and sell that 8-14 would soon change.  Ha ha.   If Scott can go 1-2 to end the season he will have "improved" 16-28.  That's the "progress".  Hope Scott can win a game ... otherwise their is no "progress" but regression. 

It is the cost of doing business. It's pretty standard to extended coaches contracts to give a vote of confidence and appearance of program stability. Pretty sure all our coaches received extensions before being fired.

[ColoradoHusk]

Does anyone really get mad at the constant payout of these coaches?  I mean it would help if NU would actually hire a good coach for once, but as others have stated above, it's the cost of doing business in today's college football.

[runningblind]

1 hour ago, ColoradoHusk said:

Does anyone really get mad at the constant payout of these coaches?  I mean it would help if NU would actually hire a good coach for once, but as others have stated above, it's the cost of doing business in today's college football.

People get mad at this just like they get mad at professional athletes making millions. It's economics. Do you think teams pay people this much for fun? No, it's because paying them brings back returns much greater than what they pay. Who cares what they make? Are you going to stop watching and giving them your money? Because you're a part of what you're mad about. 

[gobiggergoredder]

I know this is a football forum, but the Yori deal has always been one of the real clunker decisions in my opinion.

[ColoradoHusk]

22 minutes ago, runningblind said:

People get mad at this just like they get mad at professional athletes making millions. It's economics. Do you think teams pay people this much for fun? No, it's because paying them brings back returns much greater than what they pay. Who cares what they make? Are you going to stop watching and giving them your money? Because you're a part of what you're mad about. 

What are you talking about?  I don't get mad at pro athletes making a lot of $. In my mind, the best people at what they do deserve to make a lot of $. People pay $ to sporting events because it's entertainment for them. I'm sure people don't want to pay to see me sit at my desk, going through spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations. 

[Savage Husker]

This is the cost of bad leadership, pure and simple. At least auburn has a natty title they paid for. 

[BigRedBuster]

I’m not sure why any major group of Huskers fans would be pissed at this. Tuuu oh s is how that business works and if you’re going to bring in coaches you think are top I. The industry, they are going to demand this type of contract. 
 

And, I believe most Huskers fans were calling for change each time. 
 

Maybe, some programs should start to allow a coach to develop a program and make changes over time to do that instead of a year or two of down years and…”oh my god, fire him”. 

[ColoradoHusk]

It's ironic that the reasons that Frost got the long contract and $5 million salary was his name, and the thought he would be a can't-miss coach. Now that he's shown to be a "big-miss coach", that same contract and the buyout is the main reason that Frost backers say NU can't fire him. 

[NoLongerN]

4 hours ago, ZRod said:

It is the cost of doing business. It's pretty standard to extended coaches contracts to give a vote of confidence and appearance of program stability. Pretty sure all our coaches received extensions before being fired.

 

I don't think that there is a precedent of other coaches that go 8-14 on a seven year contract and get a two-year extension in after just two years of losing.  Perhaps if they went 20-2 or something upbeat, but not 8-14.  Regardless, that isn't "good business".  It's asinine.