Texas A&M is the SEC's best... in paying insane coaching buyouts
AL.com has put together some fantastic data graphics using information obtained from schools financial reports to the NCAA for Fiscal Year 2024 (July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024). And that data continues to make Longhorn fans chuckle at the entire Jimbo Fisher decision by Texas A&M, especially his firing during the 2023 season.
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Usually it’s hard to find humor in hard data. This is one of those rare occasions where it’s pretty darn easy.
Texas A&M spent $27,507,057 on severance spending during FY2024. The bulk of that insane sum was likely the $19.2 million owed to Fisher within 60 days of his dismissal without cause. Even after paying that much money to the coach that went 45-25 with a blank national championship trophy, A&M also had to pay him the first of his annual $7.2 million payments 120 days after his termination. Plus, there were other coaching contracts from his staff that needed to be bought out. According to AL.com, only about $281,000 in A&M’s total severance spending across the athletic department was not spent on football.
Even Mack Brown found that humorous.
It didn’t have to be that way. The Aggies not only bid against no one for a coach that Florida State was content to see go in 2017 with a fully-guaranteed contract, they bid against no-one again in 2021, fully guaranteeing a $95 million contract extension. There was a specter of interest from LSU, but that never materialized as the Tigers instead swung and connected with Brian Kelly.
As a result, Texas A&M is paying about $1.7 million per Fisher win for the foreseeable future and lapping almost the entire SEC when it comes to severance spending. Auburn was second at $10.9 million across its athletic department, likely due to the decisions to can Bryan Harsin in 2022 and Gus Malzahn in 2020.
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AL.com reporting listed Texas as spending $7.2 million in severance spending between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024. A considerable chunk of that likely comes from the decision to fire David Pierce from his role as head baseball coach after eight seasons. Pierce and women’s golf coach Ryan Murphy were the only two coaches let go during that academic year.
In football specifically, Texas is listed as spending $1.9 million on severance in FY 2024.
Therefore in FY 2024, Texas spent on football severance just 7 percent of what Texas A&M had to pay thanks to Fisher’s lofty buyout.
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While coaching contracts and buyouts have gotten larger and larger, the goal is not to have to pay them. A&M missed that mark and now has to shell out millions per year, and millions more than any other school, to a coach content to sit at home and watch zeroes get added to his checking account.
