It’s been a little over two months since Jimbo Fisher’s unprecedented 10-year, $75 million deal with Texas A&M became official. While the shock of the figure may have died down a bit with time, some people are still talking about the grandiosity. One of those people is reportedly Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith. At a recent OSU Board of Trustees meeting last week, Smith called Fisher’s contract “ridiculous.”
Ohio State AD Gene Smith reportedly called Jimbo Fisher’s $75 million deal ‘so ridiculous’
That’s one way to describe it.
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“I don’t even put Texas A&M in our sphere because I’m considering Urban [Meyer]’s situation with three years left on his contract,” Smith said via The Lantern. “Talking with [Susan Basso, vice president of human resources] and [Joanna McGoldrick, associate vice president of total rewards], that’s not even someone that we’re comparing with, because it’s so ridiculous.
“It’s the same way with Alabama and their total salary,” he continued, via the newspaper. “Take it off the sheet because it doesn’t matter. Because it’s just no value to it. It’s a reactionary type of management.”
Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer’s salary last season was $6,431,240, according to USA Today’s most-recent data. He’s behind Alabama’s Nick Saban, who made $11 million last season, Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh, and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney.
Smith calling out Fisher’s salary furthers the discussion of where coaching contracts are headed nowadays. San Diego State head coach Rocky Long referred to salaries like Fisher’s as “embarrassing.” Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards recently suggested creating salary caps for coaches at the collegiate level. This came on the heels of LSU defensive coordinator Dave Aranda becoming the country’s highest-paid assistant with his four-year, $10 million contract extension to keep him at LSU and away from TAMU.
On the one hand, college football is a lucrative sport, especially with modern television deals. Pair that with the “winning is everything” standard that’s at virtually every major program, and schools are going to shell out the cash to get the coaches that potentially best achieve that.
On the other hand ... a coach is making a guaranteed $75 million.
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