Are HCIW Buyout Clauses Common in College Football?

[CBlackwellRN]

So it's now become evident that Brent Key had a clause in his contract stating he would be the next head coach at UCF. This included a $700K buyout if he didn't get the job. This sounds a little crazy to me. Is it common for a potential coach replacement to actually get a buyout like that? It doesn't make a lot of sense to me that a University would back themselves into a corner like that; but apparently, that's what we did. Is there precedence for this?

Chris

 

[MarkR]

Not likely. If it was common, at least some of us would have heard about it before. Just a completely, utterly stupid move by UCF. One of those "What were they thinking?" moments, but in the end probably just GOL using his leverage back then to protect his own. (And, of course, Hitt's been in love with GOL a long time and let him rule the roost)

 

[Ucfmikes]

I don't know what the big deal is all about. I'm sure it's happened many times before, but this was publicized more for obvious reasons.

Key was getting good offers from other schools and GOL was tired of losing coaches to other programs which has actually doomed UCF. This was one loyal good coach that he didn't want to lose. Hindsight is 20/20. We're lucky it wasn't for more than $700,000.

 

[CBlackwellRN]

I don't know what the big deal is all about. I'm sure it's happened many times before, but this was publicized more for obvious reasons.

Key was getting good offers from other schools and GOL was tired of losing coaches to other programs which has actually doomed UCF. This was one loyal good coach that he didn't want to lose. Hindsight is 20/20. We're lucky it wasn't for more than $700,000.

I guess then maybe we could've offered a buyout regardless of whether or not he'd get the head coaching position. Of course if that wasn't < $700K, it doesn't really matter.

 

[MarkR]

I don't know what the big deal is all about. I'm sure it's happened many times before, but this was publicized more for obvious reasons.

Key was getting good offers from other schools and GOL was tired of losing coaches to other programs which has actually doomed UCF. This was one loyal good coach that he didn't want to lose. Hindsight is 20/20. We're lucky it wasn't for more than $700,000.

Well, I've never, ever heard of HCIW buyouts. And at contract time Key wasn't even a coordinator but just a (marginal) position coach who had a "asst. head coach" designation given by GOL. If he got another offer, goodbye. Hitt or whoever fell for it and the university was held hostage by the grand transition scheme and is now paying dearly for it. I only hope this is a wake-up call for UCF to get with it on these contracts and not let an individual wield the power GOL had. I mean, an outgoing coach being able to hand-select his own successor years in advance? Come on.

 

[firm_bizzle]

I don't know what the big deal is all about. I'm sure it's happened many times before, but this was publicized more for obvious reasons.

Key was getting good offers from other schools and GOL was tired of losing coaches to other programs which has actually doomed UCF. This was one loyal good coach that he didn't want to lose. Hindsight is 20/20. We're lucky it wasn't for more than $700,000.

Troll so hard.

 

[AAC6800]

Well, whoever we hire will be receiving $700k less due to this...... Maybe we can hire someone from Furman?

 

[Ucfmikes]

Troll so hard.

What's your strategy from stopping the new coach from losing his assistants every few years or less?? Then you are the first to complain about the assistants that we hire. There was probably a time when Key was actually a good position coach/recruiter and the $700,000 was a bargain over say a raise of a few hundred thousand over several years trying not to have him leave.

Now UCF actually saved money and he's not the coach.

 

[Ucfmikes]

Well, I've never, ever heard of HCIW buyouts. And at contract time Key wasn't even a coordinator but just a (marginal) position coach who had a "asst. head coach" designation given by GOL. If he got another offer, goodbye. Hitt or whoever fell for it and the university was held hostage by the grand transition scheme and is now paying dearly for it. I only hope this is a wake-up call for UCF to get with it on these contracts and not let an individual wield the power GOL had. I mean, an outgoing coach being able to hand-select his own successor years in advance? Come on.

It was a $700,000 "future bonus" or guarantee that he wouldn't leave. Teams at our level have to use strategies like this to stop assistant coaches from constantly leaving all the time. In this case it was a HC "Apple" over say a coordinator position.

In the end, I think the university saved money and Key isn't the coach. They didn't have to give him a huge raise for
several years which would have been
over a million.

 

[goodknightfl]

Not likely. If it was common, at least some of us would have heard about it before. Just a completely, utterly stupid move by UCF. One of those "What were they thinking?" moments, but in the end probably just GOL using his leverage back then to protect his own. (And, of course, Hitt's been in love with GOL a long time and let him rule the roost)

FSU did it with Jimbo. Common? NO. Uncommon? Probably not.

Had we won 8 games this year, and Key was HC and GOL the AD, and we kept winning no one would have said a word.

Like him or hate him GOL usually had a pretty good read on his current team, and didn't see this meltdown happening. If it went the way he hoped, he would have left with the most wins ever at UCF, Either retired or as the AD.

700k over 2 years to buy out Key is chicken feed.

 

[Ucfmikes]

FSU did it with Jimbo. Common? NO. Uncommon? Probably not.

Had we won 8 games this year, and Key was HC and GOL the AD, and we kept winning no one would have said a word.

Like him or hate him GOL usually had a pretty good read on his current team, and didn't see this meltdown happening. If it went the way he hoped, he would have left with the most wins ever at UCF, Either retired or as the AD.

700k over 2 years to buy out Key is chicken feed.

Unfortunately, many of the posters on here don't think like you. They just see HCIW and $700,000. Not beyond that whatsoever

 

[80'sKnight]

At least it's not the $1 Million Maryland buyout had with Franklin in 2010 when he was appointed HCIW. He left for Vandy. So, it's probably in every HCIW contract.

 

[mattropolis]

Well, I've never, ever heard of HCIW buyouts. And at contract time Key wasn't even a coordinator but just a (marginal) position coach who had a "asst. head coach" designation given by GOL. If he got another offer, goodbye. Hitt or whoever fell for it and the university was held hostage by the grand transition scheme and is now paying dearly for it. I only hope this is a wake-up call for UCF to get with it on these contracts and not let an individual wield the power GOL had. I mean, an outgoing coach being able to hand-select his own successor years in advance? Come on.

What are you talking about? Held hostage? Name a successor? Only people on here into conspiracy theories believe that there was some clause somewhere that said no matter what, Key was our next coach. Flat wrong. I believe contracts were negotiated and written, lawyers looked it over and then the two parties signed it. It's called contract law. What "transition scheme"? Is he automatically our next coach? No. I doubt anybody had a gun held to their head when they signed it. We don't know the real reasons behind that clause and until someone comes out and explains it, we're just arguing over speculation. It could be that "salary" and "buyouts" are considered different buckets of money in their budget. They might have been near being tapped-out for "salary", so shifted the language to use the money out of the "buyouts" bucket. Companies do all kinds of "creative" accounting to get things done. I've seen this many times over my 19 yr career as an Engineer. People act like we're broke now because of 700K. Don't worry, there is big money in coaching. To top it off, next guy up gets more money. This has always been the case for contracts.

As an example, Bud Foster at VaTech is the top assistant guy at 1.368 million/yr. He is commonly referred to as the HCIW at VaTech. He signed a new 5 yr contract in 2014 that upped his salary by over 800K/yr from what he was making in 2014. A big chunk of that salary is a "retention bonus" he gets paid annually...300K. As part of his previous contract, there was a provision that also pays him out a one-time 800K annuity this Jan 1st. The intent was that the extra 800K incentive would keep him from taking another job somewhere else. Creative, yet effective contract language and execution. So they didn't put specific language in his contract to say he gets a bonus if he is not the next head coach. They just decided to pay him an extra 300K/yr to keep him around. They also have to pay Foster in excess of 1 million dollars for any year during the next 5 years (except for 2019 which gets prorated based on months served) if they terminate his contract. The end result is essentially the same effect....money obligated to keep someone around. VaTech just executed the contract language in a different manner. This is just one contract. You can only imagine the variety and creativity used across all contracts for all University's football staff (and other areas of school operations as well).

http://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/salaries/ (Head coaches - 2015)
Cincy is paying Tuberville 2.2 million
GOL was getting 1.89 million
Navy coach is 1.637 million
Uconn (Diaco) is 1.55 million
Houston (Herman) = 1.45 million
ECU (Grimace) = 1.417 million
Memphis (Fuente) = 1.4 million
USF (Taggart) = 1.153 million

As for assistants (this is for 2014): http://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/salaries/football/assistant
Barry Odom (Memphis) = 372K
Chuck Bresnahan (USF) = 354K
Eddie Gran (Cincy) = 350K
Brent Guy (Tulsa) = 308K
Brent Key (UCF) = 303K
Paul Wulff (USF) = 300K
Robert Prunty (Cincy) = 300K
Mike Cummings (UConn) = 292K
Anthony Poindexter (UConn) = 292K
Charlie Taffe (UCF) = 291K
Lincoln Riley (ECU) = 279K
Darin Hinshaw (Cincy) = 270K
James Shibest (Memphis) = 260K
Hank Hughes (Cincy) = 250K
Darrell Dickey (Memphis) = 245K
Don Patterson (UConn) = 242K
Vincent Borwn (UConn) = 242K
Dave Baldwin (Colorado St) = 240K
Dave Schramm (Fresno St) = 237K
Jovan Dewitt (Army) = 235K
Robert Debesse (New Mexixo) = 226K
Rick Smith (ECU) = 224K
***The rest of our assistants get paid 200K or less, so even with having to pay out Key, the overall budget for football staff may not get "busted" becaause other salaries are less to balance it out. Just speculating...I have no insight into UCFs atheltic budget with regards to staffing.