The college football coaching arms race has become conversation topic No. 1 around the country once again, as Brian Kelly became the latest highly compensated head man sent packing at a hefty price tag. Teams are desperate to find the next great coach that will turn them into national contenders. Yet, in that pursuit, they overpay, putting massive expectations on their chosen leader only to cough up lucrative buyouts when said coaches don’t meet those expectations. Yeah, we’re looking at you LSU and Penn State.
Scott Woodward just paid out the second of the two most expensive buyouts ever in college football when the Tigers parted ways with Kelly. Kelly was just four years into a 10-year deal, in which the Tigers were never a serious championship contender. Lincoln Riley is in the same boat, as he has USC in college football purgatory amidst a 10-year deal signed in 2021.
It’s one thing to want to make sure you keep a quality coach on the sidelines as long as possible, but throwing 10-year deals at coaches just doesn’t make much sense. Especially when those deals come with fully guaranteed buyouts. It’s just not worth it, especially not in this era of NIL, the transfer portal and revenue sharing. And as this coaching carousel gets crazier, it’s something schools should take note of.
What college football teams can learn from LSU coaching fiasco
The LSU coaching situation that is continuing to spiral out of control is an object lesson for the rest of college football. It’s better to go the Curt Cignetti route, where you let the coach actually prove they can win with you before you throw an exorbitant amount of money at them. Imagine if Indiana gave Cignetti a 10-year deal right out the gate; had he not lived up to his winning expectations, they would have looked ridiculous for that deal.
Instead, they look even more brilliant for giving him an extension as several Power 4 coaches started dropping like flies, making sure they don’t let him rebuild a rival. The shorter deals pay off in the long run. These 10-year deals aren’t worth it, and it’s putting the financial strain on teams that ultimately take NIL funds away from building a competitive roster.
Because the upcoming coaching cycle is about to be unhinged, let LSU’s issues be a lesson to everyone else. Just because the coach is a big name doesn’t automatically mean they’re going to do big things. Kelly didn’t even make it halfway through his contract before he was let go. Handcuffing yourself to an established coach will only take you so far. Just because a coach succeeded at one stop doesn’t mean they’ll succeed at the next.
This upcoming coaching cycle is going to set a new standard for coaching contracts
With how messy things are at LSU, how hesitant Florida and Penn State were in firing their respective coaches – and how hesitant Florida State and Auburn are to part ways with Mike Norvell and Hugh Freeze – the way football programs handle coaching hires will be changed forever. Whether a team makes a big splash hire or brings in a coach that’s already rebuilt one program at a lower level, I doubt these coaches get long contracts and lucrative buyouts.
That hasn’t worked. It looked like a model that would suffice, but the urgency to win now just doesn’t work with extensive coaching deals. If you’re going to give coaches long deals, that means you have to be patient with their development. Even if the results don’t start right away, you signed up for that by thinking they would be around for the long term. By that same token, giving shorter deals means you will have to go deep into the financials to keep them around if they actually succeed.
It’s the challenge programs face every year, and this year it’s going to be more important than ever. As more layers continue to unfold with the dysfunction at LSU, it further proves why the Tigers made a 10-year mistake. If USC doesn’t turn the corner either, it makes you wonder if we’ll ever see another long term deal like Kelly’s or Riley’s ever again.