Miami was ready to move on from Frenk as the president because the law school’s bar passage rate and academic ranking has dropped to a number that is embarrassing to the board of trustees. UM’s ranking in the US News & World Report has also slipped under Frenk’s leadership and the board of trustees is not happy about that. In 2012, UM peaked in the rankings at 38 while UF came in at 58 and FSU at 101. Today, UF is the state’s highest ranked school at 28, while UM and FSU are tied at 55, a trend that has hurt the school’s academic reputation. Frenk’s contract was not going to be renewed, but then the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the university decided to extend Frenk because he is an expert in public health. UM Health has brought in a lot of money to the school in recent years, but Frenk is viewed as being on thin ice with the board of trustees.
- Regardless of who advised James to go on a clandestine media tour the day before a big game for a coach that he hired within 12 hours of the job opening up, it is a stunt that has not gone over well in the coaching community. The belief is that you will not find many established coaches that will trust James enough to want to work with him.
- James is also not respected in the coaching industry because he is viewed as an athletic director that does not fulfill paying coaches their contracts when they no longer work at Miami (this happened to Al Golden and has happened to assistant coaches). If coaches want their money from UM, they will have to sue the university and get tied up in legal fees.
- Is the money there for Miami to hire Cristobal? The belief is that Miami has the available money for staffing (Cristobal’s salary along with coaching staff pool / support staff pool). Internally, this is a strike against the current Manny Diaz regime. The university has funded Diaz with whatever he has asked for with staffing (most recently matching what Florida was going to pay Travaris Robinson) but the results on the field have not been delivered.
- The sticking point with the money to hire Cristobal is, of course, the buyout that is in the $9 million range. Cristobal has plenty of friends in South Florida that want to see him come home and lead the UM program. Cristobal attended Columbus High School with Jose Mas, who is the CEO of MasTec and a big supporter of the UM basketball program. Marcus Lemonis, the CEO of Camping World, is another Columbus grad that respects Cristobal. Miami does not like to pay for coaching buyouts with booster money, but in the case of Cristobal, there are donors willing to step up.
- It should be noted that Cristobal was interested in the Miami job back when the position opened up when Mark Richt resigned. He was told “things were moving quickly” when he reached out to get a sense on where the search was going. Diaz was hired within 12 hours of the job opening up.
- It should be noted that there are members on the board of trustees that still believe Manny Diaz can fix the football program. There are also members on the board of trustees that have strong relationships with Manny Diaz Sr.,
M must be “the most highly compensated Adidas university both in ACC and the state of Florida, as measured solely by the annual average contract year of all ‘guaranteed compensation.’” That Louisville deal was worth more annually than Miami’s 12-year deal, which was signed back in 2015. James did not know that clause was in Miami’s agreement with Adidas until somebody outside of the program with knowledge of the deal informed him.
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