The Cost Of Buying Out Coach O’s Contract
Nobody likes losing. LSU football fans are among the best at hating losing the most. Tiger fans just don't like to have the smaller number on the scoreboard at the end of the game. It's just that simple. The fan base and the University expect to win and when they don't well all kinds of great rumors start flying.
Most of the Tiger supporters that I am in close contact with were very tepid on the idea of hiring Ed Orgeron as the head coach after the dismissal of Les Miles. Coach O has his good qualities. I personally like the guy and think he his a solid football man and better than average human being too.
The final gun on Saturday's loss to Troy was less than 15 minutes old when I began to notice questions on social media inquiring about Orgeron's contract buyout. Well according to a report on NOLA.com if you wanted Coach O to go this year you'd be spending $12 million.
In the world of big-time college sports that's really not a lot of money. That would barely get you a starting point guard on the University of Louisville Basketball team. Next year the buyout amount falls to $8.5 million. In 2019 the figure drops to $6 million. Basically Coach O is paid $3.5 million per year so for every year of service the buyout falls by that amount.
Let's face it. Money isn't the issue with the LSU football program. The issue is finding the right guy to coach the team. There just aren't a lot of quality coaches available. If the Tigers make a move they're going to have to buy out an even larger contract somewhere else.
Maybe Coach Orgeron is the right guy. Maybe it's just going to take the Tigers a little time to get used to the new offensive scheme and defensive scheme. The one thing we know about time and college football is this, coaches don't have a lot of time to get things right. Especially coaches at LSU.