Texas Boosters Weigh Paying $50 Million for Less Coaching
The costly part of hiring a winner turns out to include the option of paying him to leave.
The story
BroBible reports that Texas donors have discussed a buyout exceeding $50 million for Steve Sarkisian after consecutive losses to unranked opponents. The report describes pressure and speculation, not an announced dismissal.
Source: brobible.com
Our reading
College football has developed an impressive range of products for wealthy supporters. You can fund the players, fund the coach, and, if the first two purchases disappoint, fund the absence of the coach.
The last option is particularly elegant. It delivers no touchdowns, requires no training camp and produces a result you can see immediately: the person you were paying is no longer there. In a sport obsessed with execution, a departure is wonderfully easy to measure.
The reported buyout is a useful reminder that a long contract is a statement of confidence with an exit invoice attached. Everyone believes in the future; the paperwork simply makes provision for discovering a different future after a bad Saturday.
No dismissal has been announced. For now, the only completed transformation is conceptual: a sum that once demonstrated commitment can also demonstrate how urgently commitment needs to end.
Winning remains priceless. Not winning comes with a figure.