A closer look at Will Muschamp’s buyout and associated costs for USC with his departure
The buyout total is always the number thrown out.
At the end of last season, the number thrown around to buy out Will Muschamp’s contract was more than $18 million. Now it’s a bit more than $13.2 million. It sounds like an impossible figure for an athletic department that, at last official announcement, was trying to close a $44 million budget deficit.
But that $13.2 million isn’t a short-term number, and that makes it more palatable.
Instead of looking at the whole number, think of it as a salary. The buyout provision in the contract means Muschamp would make 75% of his current salary from USC, or $3.3 million a year. That’s not great, but easier to handle.
What’s more, whatever he makes at a new job will come out of South Carolina’s obligations. In the past, coaches have had undercut that by taking a minimal salary somewhere else, but USC’s contracts set the minimum offset (mitigation) at 75% of the previous holder of a coach’s new job.
At the moment, 75% of what Auburn’s current defensive coordinator makes is $1.875 million. For Georgia’s, it’s $937,500. For Texas A&M, it’s $1.575 million.
Of course, after a theoretical separation. A coach like Muschamp could take an analyst job, though his personality as a recruiter might make him loathe to do that.
In some cases, coaches will negotiate lower totals if they can sidestep that mitigation and make up the difference at new jobs. (Gamecocks offensive coordinator Mike Bobo did this very thing this offseason.) That usually means more of a lump sum in the short term, which is probably not what cash-strapped athletic departments are looking for.
So that number is less of an issue than it sounds, but a few others are.
To start with, the Gamecocks have five assistant or strength coaches on multi-year deals. Assistants have traditionally gone year-to-year, and most still are in that boat, but the longer deals have been more popular of late.
Those five coaches total more than $4 million in obligations. That means five chances for mitigation money, but coaches who drop to Group of Five programs mean more money staying on the books. Schools adding assistants in tight times logically could try to take advantage of such situations by paying only that 75%.
Then there’s the matter of new coaches and buyouts.
Traditionally, covering a new coach’s buyout is just the cost of doing business. Some schools make coaches pay for it, but most don’t. In normal times, a school like South Carolina with more than $120 million in revenue can work though those questions.
But these are not normal times.
Hiring a Power 5 head coach like a Neal Brown from West Virginia would cost $4 million. A good Group of Five coach such as Louisiana’s Billy Napier would be $1.25 million.
Some assistants might require buyouts as well (if they have multi-year deals). There might be crossover periods when some old assistants are on the payroll alongside new ones.
In short, there’s a little extra batch of costs with a coaching change.
It’s a tough pill to swallow for a department that might well have to cut sports or staff to make ends meet this season. But they’ve started down that path already.
This story was originally published November 15, 2020, 7:44 PM.
