rockfordpi

Ah, Yep, I for one miss those good old days when kids went out there and sweated and bled and risked getting (and got) injured, maimed, and concussions (and long term consequences thereof) , to entertain us and make hundreds of millions for Head Coaches, Colleges, and Conferences, and billions for ESPN only to have most aspects of their lives and future controlled by the Universities and the NCAA (the very people that profited from most from the old system) for the value of a scholarship that essentially cost the Universities nothing to give. Damn you Supreme Court, both liberals and conservatives, for your rare unanimous ruling in favor of the greedy athletes over the noble NCAA and Universities who, in the model of the ancient Greeks, only sought to make the world a better place through amateur intercollegiate athletic competition. I have written here (and been chastised) multiple times for pointing out that historically things have not ended well for those in power in systems where there is one group of people doing all the sweating and bleeding and another group of people reaping most of the benefits and rewards, see Slavery, Imperialism, Monarchies, the labor movement, Woman Suffrage. Now we can add to that list the Honorable NCAA and the Noble Universities who sold their souls (as well as million dollar skyboxes, $15 hamburgers/$7 drinks, and license/merchandising fees for certain fonts and colors on everything from shoes to cakes) for the almighty $$$. The supreme court was correct, it is no longer amateur athletics, instead it has become a multi-billion dollar entertainment industry who wanted to perpetuate a plantation mentality under the guise and veil of "amateur athletics" Now, if TPTB really want to fix the problem (and they do not) here is an easy fix. Take the $$$ and national exposure out of the system and make it truly a much more amateur system. Cancel ALL of the network contracts to air events. Every university will stream its home games for a fee directly to individual fans who want to watch. Guarantee a student ticket to every student and first choice to alums who want to attend before selling tix to the general public. Limit the commercials to 6-8 Minutes per half, show the bands at half time. Take the money and national exposure out of the system and many of these issues like NIL will go away (along with $10 Million annual coaches salaries, new ever more plush football building and practice facilities every three years). I think given the choices above, the TPTB will hold their noses and live with NIL, the transfer portal, and paying players before they give up the $$$$. Ideally they would like to still have all the $$$$ and continuing controlling the players and giving them a pittance, but given a choice, they will always chose the $$$$$, even if they have to share. The NCAA and Universities would do well to remember something that wise old philosopher, Walt Kelly's Pogo Possum, once said "We have met the enemy and he is US".

I agree. Of course Trooper Taylor also had to come on to the field to keep our DL that the GA OL pounced on from killing someone. Out of all that Cam did in his career at AU, for me that was one of his most impressive performances because of the mental aspect of it. All week he had been (unfairly) vilified on ESPN and every other radio/TV/news outlet. He was the talk and focus of the College Football World and not in a good way. Cam had been suspended that week. The tension/anxiety was high as the public only found out for certain that he was eligible/playing when his name was announced over the PA as the starter when they did the player introductions. I can't begin to imagine how hard it would have been to focus and prepare that week, not knowing if his heisman hopes were gone or if he would even be allowed to play college football again. Not only that, but how it would feel to run out on that field in front of a national TV audience knowing all the negative stuff that had been said, written, and was being thought about him at that very moment. At a time when most of us would have been mentally and emotionally drained, if not a complete basketcase, Cam was still focused and went out and played the game and played it very well. I have often wondered if he was truly that mentally strong or if he just never grasped the gravity of the situation. I also wonder if maybe his situation and FL and what he went through rehabbing himself at Blinn College prepared him for that moment. Regardless, Cam's performance that day under those circumstances is one of the things I remember most about that Memorable season and I was fortunate enough to see every home game except UTC.

The boosters are the ones who INVEST money in Auburn University and Auburn Athletics. The boosters are the ones the administration and fans come to with their hands out when millions are needed to hire a new coach and pay off a coach that needs to go. The boosters are the ones the fans and media complain about when they want to have a say about how THEIR money is being spent. Free money always comes with strings attached in terms of influence. You don't want these people to have a say, then don't ask for or accept their money. In terms of the CBH hire, the Boosters and Fans formed an unholy alliance (the boosters used the fanbase) to get rid of CGM (a coach who never out recruited Saban, but out coached him several times, a coach whose current team in a second tier league with his high school offense and simple pass routes would likely beat AU this year, but I digress). Then, when the Boosters wanted to have a say in the next hire, the fans revolted (letter writing campaign) and quickly jumped out of bed with the boosters, insisting that the AD get to independently make the hire (just knowing that, instead of CKS, he would magically hire Urban Meyer, Bob Stoops, Pete Carroll et. al. when in reality the coaches from both UAB and ULM turned us down). The AD turned his back on the boosters and sided with the fans (some of the same nuts who blamed much AU's woes on Bo Nix, I just never imagined Bo's dad would have so much influence in Oregon to make his son the starter up there, but man, can you imagine just how much better Oregon would be this year if they had gotten our BACKUP QB instead of Bo who did not know how to stay in the pocket and was only starting because of his dad? and can you believe just how Disloyal and low down Bo was to walk away from all of this, but again, I digress) And Boom, just like that, we ended up with a coach from Boise Idaho (who could have ever imagined this would not work out). The AD listened to and sided with the wisdom of the fans and now when he goes to a game, he gets to sit right there with them and soak up even more fan wisdom. Now, all the fans and admins who did not want the boosters to have a say in the last hire, are there begging the Boosters to put up (or underwrite) millions to hire a new coach and buy out the old coach the boosters never wanted to hire and never thought would work. But of course, these boosters are wrong for wanting to have a say in who the next hire is and how their money was being spent. If you were a wealthy booster, would you keep pouring money into a system that worked like this? Neither will the Boosters as they did not accumulate their wealth by allowing someone else to control how THEIR money was being spent. Right or wrong, the Boosters are not going to hand a blank check to egghead administrators and a paranoid schizophrenic fanbase and let them make the decisions.

Which Happens First?

Problem with writing a contract like that is that AU has NO leverage (other than money) to make a coach sign it. Now, AU could put enough money in the contract for a HUGE buyout for a HC to leave and get a HC coach to sign it. Problem with that is that it works BOTH ways, one bad season and we would be right back where we are now with even more millions of buyout money on the table. At UAT, CNS can leave anytime without paying UAT a dime, but if UAT fires CNS, they owe him 10's of million of dollars. It's a very one-sided contract, but what leverage did UAT have to get CNS to agree to a buyout if he leaves? Wait, am I actually worrying about coach prime leaving AU for FSU, when there is not even an vacancy at AU much less him being hired, LOL. That is a good sign I am spending WAY TOO much time here, LOL.

Not sure if I agree with you on being justified for wiggling their way out of it. Certainly they should try to construe the terms of the contract as much in their favor as possible and if that is wiggling, I agree. What I do not agree with is fabricating, or threatening to fabricate, evidence to get out of paying or defaming the man just to get rid of him. Not only is that wrong, it could backfire and the amount of the civil judgement could make his buyout amount seem trivial. Bottom line is that AU rolled the dice that they could make a substantial improvement of CGM and they lost. Anyone who actively sought to make that roll of the dice happen shares in the blame. I am NOT saying AU should not have taken that chance, just saying everyone knew (or should have known) and accepted the risk when they did. When you gamble and lose, you lose your money, just man up, pay up, accept responsibility, learn from it, and move on.

The contract spells out what is owed CBH if he is fired. Obviously, the devil is in the details. However, I would be willing to bet there is nothing in his contract that reduces his buyout based on the team's performance, recruiting, or player/staff retention. I am pretty sure there are lots of moral/ethical/rules violation clauses therein that would justify eliminating the buyout. The problem is, most likely there are none that "reduce" the buyout, it is all or nothing. AU can prove he violated the contract and pay him nothing, or pay him everything.

To answer your question, you don't. "Power Brokers" is a nebulous group as there is no official association of "Power Brokers" to investigate. I guess it is possible to "investigate" certain individuals. However, not sure WHO would have jurisdiction or what rules or laws they broke. The University actively and constantly solicits donations from these people, they can't then turn around and punish them for wanting to have a say in what the University does with their millions. If you want to end their influence, simply stop taking their money. Now, if these people maliciously defame someone, they could be liable for damages in civil court, but it would be up to the aggrieved party to bring and prove those charges. This is all a part of a much larger problem in that college football is no longer amateur athletics, instead it is a big time player in the billion dollar sports entertainment industry. The Universities and conferences sold their souls to greed and the almighty dollar and now they are paying the price.

I said the same thing about GCM, LOL. However, we need to look on the bright side, we are no longer running a HS offense and we are throwing to the Tight Ends now like the experts here that coach(ed) pee wee football said we needed, and after all, that is the most important thing. Change does not always mean better, it just means different. Why fans thought/expected that the same crew who gave GCM a $49 million contract and then fired him, could turn around and make a blockbuster hire is beyond me. This problem was put into motion when the outspoken fans and boosters revolted to get rid of CGM, it continued when those same fans rose up and revolted to stop the boosters from hiring Kevin Steele, which empowered the AD to hire CBH, now some of the same people in the previous groups want CBH fired, and the beat goes on. It's a classic three ring circus. The boosters teamed up with the outspoken fanbase to run CGM out of town against the wishes of the AD. Then the schizophrenic fanbase revolted against and stuck a knife in the back of the boosters and jumped on board with the AD so he could get the man he wanted. Now everybody wants the boosters to pony up the money to pay off CBH and let the AD make ANOTHER blockbuster hire. That should not be TOO hard as I am sure big name and up and coming coaches that are looking and laughing at this from the outside are just clamoring to jump into this fiasco (never mind that Napier and UAB's coach both turned us down last time). All those pointing fingers need to look in the mirror instead. I supported CGM, I would have supported Kevin Steele and, as long as he is the coach, I support CBH. I don't have a solution, I just know that if the factions do not get together and support someone to restore stability, ultimately we will be lucky if we can get the OC of one of the Opelika Pee Wee football teams to take the job. Ok, I am going to pause here and see what the UT playbook we seem to be following suggests we do next.

This is what I remembered/knew. However, I could not remember how much of it was ever made public so I wasn't going to dispute the issue.

Are you 100% sure of the opposite?

I covered that the second quote of my signature line below, LOL.

Yep, we just toil along minding our own business, doing everything right and according the AU creed, and the evil media just destroys us because we are good and they are evil. They fabricate, invent, and make up all this stuff and there is nothing we can do about it. As my signature line as said for the last 15 or so years, "We have met the enemy and he is US".

It has not for UT, and apparently many fanatics and boosters will not be happy until they get us on the UT plan. But, wait, the next hire is going to be a blockbuster, the next Saban, and all this will end. Wait, the AD fell short, he was weak and incompetent because he could not get the big name coach the fanatics just knew was itching to jump into this dumpster fire (ignore for the moment all the lesser coaches that said no to AU) and the AD should have hired him. Now we have to fire the AD because he failed to deliver. So, now we have to go to the boosters to raise money to buyout ANOTHER 20 million contract. Now, the boosters, getting tired of having to shell out millions to replace coaches, shamelessly want some input into who the new coach will be. Can you imagine the GAUL of that? Just because they are constantly asked to contribute millions to buy out bad coaches, they think they should have some say as to who the next coach will be. Don't they know they are supposed to sit down, shut up, and write the checks and let the fans, the AD, and other experts hire and fire coaches. Now, take a trip back to the good old days when the head coach (namely Pat Dye) was hired by and reported not to the president, but directly to the BOT. Not sure how we come out worse, letting the Boosters hire the coach or the AD. At this point, I think our best shot would just be to throw a dart (well, I mean other than letting the fanatics on the boards hire and fire coaches based on a poll in the forum) .

I have a really hard time buying that. Lets see, you can fire me now and I get the full buyout and walk away with my reputation somewhat intact with AU looking really bad. OR I can work for another year in this impossible hell hole you have created where I can't recruit good players or coaches, further damaging my reputation, and then you can fire me later and pay me a lot less. (note deduced buyout = termination WITHOUT cause, if they are terminating for cause, buyout is irrelevant). Almost everyone on this site would be way too smart to take that deal, and I am pretty sure either CBH, his attorney, and/or Jimmy Sexton (or whomever CBH's agent is) would be smarter than that as well. That same nonsense was floated about CGM the year before he left in an effort to undermine him. Now, maybe the PTB are trying to negotiate a settlement for him to leave in exchange for both sides going quietly, but that is not a buyout, that is a settlement. Settlement is now, buyout is future.