ATHENS, Ga. — Auburn became the latest SEC program to fire its head coach. Hugh Freeze will be owed a $15.8 million buyout for his early exit, according to ESPN.
That now makes four SEC programs and at least eight others that have fired their coaches mid-season.
GameDay on 2 spoke to University of Georgia professor Clay Collins, who studies sports economics about the price of firing a coach. What does he recommend schools do to protect themselves?
“The biggest thing is to include these offsetting and duty to mitigate causes. This helps make sure that even though the money is, quote unquote, guaranteed, it’s less likely to be the full sticker price,” he explained.
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It’s mostly about timing for when programs decide to cut ties with a head coach. For example, when University of Florida fired Billy Napier, his contract says that half of his buyout had to be paid within 30 days.
“Having extended or longer payout periods are a whole lot easier to deal with,” Collins said.
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Collins told GameDay on 2 that coaches have a lot of the negotiating power.
“These coaches are representatives of not just the university, but in many cases, their state. They’re managing not just a huge roster, but dozens of employees. They want to be insured in the same way that a CEO of a major business has insured,” he said.
Does the UGA professor see an end in sight where the pool of money has tapped out?
“I think at some point we will level off. Will it be within the next five years, eight years, 10 years? Probably not,” Collin said. “Coaches are doing very well. 20, 30 years in the future, we may see something a little different.”
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