re: The Orgeron Extension Talk: Why?

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The real answer is because Alleva needs to capitalize on the fact that O was his pick (remember “I am the search”?) and by extending O it keeps alleva safe because he knows whenever O gets fired, he won’t be picking his replacement because he will he in the unemployment line with him.

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The real answer, right or wrong, is this has become standard practice in college football. Look at Auburn and Gus, same thing. He beats Alabama in 2017, and they give him an absurd raise the very next week...then he goes on to get blasted in the SECCG, blasted in the Peach Bowl, then fell apart last year, and now the fans want him gone but they're stuck with a $30MM buyout. Barry Odom goes 8-5 with a Liberty Bowl loss, gets raise and extension. Granted it's Missouri, but still, did he really deserve a raise and extension this quickly especially considering he's been leaning on an NFL QB that will be gone next year? Butch Jones continuously got raises at UT for mediocre results, now they're stuck paying his $9MM buyout. Will Muschamp got a raise and extension after an 11 win season at Florida, and he followed that up with a 4-8 season and was fired two years later. And he just got another raise and extension at USC after a 7-6 season this year.

There are more examples, but these are just a few in our own conference.

I'm in no way an expert on contract negotiations at this level (nor is anyone here), but it has become just standard business in college football. I think the root of it comes down to their agents and ADs being scared and not wanting to dig their heels in at all. This has led to ridiculously inflated coaching salaries, ridiculous buyouts, and it doesn't show any signs of slowing down. Eventually, however, there is no way this bubble doesn't pop eventually. If coaching salaries continue to rise like they have the last 5-10 years, there is no way I see that being sustainable.

Fortunately for Orgeron, his buyout right now is "only" $5.2MM (obviously not taking into account the terms of this new contract), so relatively speaking, had he fallen on his face this year, it would have been very easy to cut ties with him. You also need to take into consideration it is very unlikely he'd do poorly enough next year to get fired. So we pretty much know he will be here through the 2020 season. If whatever new buyout he'll have puts us back around the current $5,2MM number at the end of 2020, I believe we'd be fine. However, if this buyout has us on the hook for $10MM+ at the end of 2020, I think some reevaluating needs to be done.