"Paying him an estimated $60 million buyout — combined with the tens of millions then needed to pay a new coach — would cripple the program’s budget, when every last nickel is needed to pay players."
That is the most important point of the whole piece. Similar to this:
https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/31/sport/college-football-coach-buyouts
In the age of NIL, there is no way to sustain paying Head Coaches (and a lot of assistants too) exorbitant amounts of $$$$ anymore. As the article linked states:
"Except now, as some of those bills come due at the same time revenue sharing comes into existence, the very real question is no longer an existential crisis. Just where is the money coming from?
“I have no idea,’’ said another board member at an affected school. “The money does not exist.’’
If the current (and soon to be participating) P4 coaching search schools got together to try and reign in the spending by getting, younger, hungrier coaches, Jimmy Sexton and CAA would be filing collusion suits left and right. No, the only way to save CFB from the leeches like Sexton (Check out this week's "SEC Shorts," who took a shot at him too) is pretty unthinkable. The big money boosters, who should know something about "cost control," need to informally meet and agree to, as Susan Powder use to say, "Stop the Madness!" Almost impossible? Yes, when it comes to their teams, they throw good business sense to the wind, but maybe the alert sirens are finally loud enough (read the buyouts are nuts, thanks to Sexton and his ilk) that they recognize it, especially as another big media deal (okay, for SEC and B1G, Jim Phillips would get fleeced on a used car with two missing wheels and no brakes) is not coming anytime soon and inflation doesn't stop.
Awful I have to hope LSU, Arkansas, Auburn, and yes, even the Bull($#!+) Gator boosters meet quietly outside of Destin (rural North Walton County would be best) and decide together to throw the gauntlet down. Sure, more Sunbelt and MAC coaches would drive their non-paying fan bases ape, but as one poster expertly pointed out, Curt Cignetti turned IU around and he wasn't a name coach; maybe that is how they break it the schools to go in a more "economical direction." If the SEC does it, other programs boosters will be emboldened to do so, maybe even the Miami's "Commission"
It's either that or this Fat @Z$'s cycle continues:
https://www.barstoolsports.com/blog...-to-make-money-hand-over-fist-this-off-season