After every college football season, heads roll.
Auburn already fired coach Gene Chizik after a 3-9 season, despite winning a national championship in 2010. Tennessee fired coach Derek Dooley whose team went 1-7 in Southeastern Conference play.
At first, the firings appeared to be reasonable.
Each university’s football team is its flagship program. As seen this year at Ohio, a successful football program is able to earn the university a tremendous reputation throughout the nation.
If the team finished with a losing record, nobody would have noticed the Bobcats, as a losing season is a pitfall for any university’s reputation.
Therefore, a change in the coaching staff is a new start for the football team and the university.
What is overlooked, though, is the cost of it.
According to a New York Times article, Auburn had to buy out the remaining two years of Chizik’s contract. Auburn now owes him $208,334 every month for the next three years, adding up to a total of $7.5 million.
Now its athletic department is shouldered with the burden of paying Chizik and finding his replacement, as well funding the latter’s paycheck.
Because universities don’t plan replacements in their budget plans and don’t have a special emergency fund established, Auburn is facing a financial crisis and has to allocate funds that could have been spent for other programs at the university for the buyout.
Tennessee, which faces the same problem, tried to solve its financial issue by forgoing $18 million in contributions it planned to make to the university for academic scholarships, according to the same New York Times article.
If worse comes to worst, other varsity teams could suffer. The University of Maryland had to cut seven varsity programs to overcome a $4 million deficit this year, according to the Washington Post.
As paychecks for head coaches increase and buyouts become more expensive, students, athletes and some unpopular sports are the ones who suffer.
If the NCAA won’t introduce regulations about contracts with coaches and the coaches fail to forego their extra payments after being fired, athletic departments around the nation will find themselves in financial crises over and over again.
Until then, we as students can just do what we have always done: Cheer on our football team and hope for a successful season.
Alexander Muehlbach is a freshman studying journalism and a sports writer for The Post. Send your thoughts to am794811@ohiou.edu.
