Our AD Made a comment about this when he was hired in 2017.
“To me, losing football games is [reason for being] terminated with cause,” he said. “And the protection that coaches are provided with in their contracts to me is ludicrous. I want to be a leader in the industry and how we write our coaches’ contracts moving forward, so that there’s not 100% guaranteed [salary] protection for their contracts.”
There are numerous examples, but Yurachek made particular reference to former Texas A&M head football coach Kevin Sumlin, who was fired after six years and a 51-26 record.
Because of a raise and contract extension awarded to him in 2013, Sumlin will still be paid the $10.4 million he would have been paid if he hadn’t been fired by the university, according to his employment contract.
“Coaches deserve some protection,” Yurachek said Wednesday. “The expectations they face are so high, especially in our league and in other Power 5 leagues. But for Kevin Sumlin to get paid 100% of his contract at $10 million, I think that was a mistake. Now, I’m not at Texas A&M and I know we compete against them in our conference and they’ll probably hold that against me, but that is a mistake in our industry.”