2 days Ago By Mike Bianchi
The news media is in a tizzy about the extravagant spending of former University of Florida president Ben Sasse, who apparently was spending the school’s money on hosting a lavish holiday party for big-money donors that featured a $38,610 sushi bar. As a result, Gov. Ron DeSants’ administration has directed the state auditor general to investigate Sasse’s expenditures as part of a previously scheduled audit of the university.
I have an even better idea: How about we get the state auditor general to investigate the exorbitant, wasteful contracts that UF and Florida State have bestowed upon their now-embattled football coaches — Billy Napier and Mike Norvell ? These bloated coaching contracts make Sasse’s sushi bar look like the popcorn shrimp basket at Long John Silver’s. The outlay for Sasse’s expense reports is chump change compared with the football spending sprees at Florida, Florida State and most other big-time institutions of higher earning. I understand the state media and government beancounters digging into Sasse’s spending habits, but if you want a real scandal and a misappropriation of funds in higher education then somebody should do a deep dive into the finances of the athletic associations at Florida and Florida State.
Let’s start with the Gators, who are seemingly close to pulling the plug on Napier not even three years into the 7-year, $7.4 million-a-year contract he signed in December 2021. If Napier gets fired, the Gators are on the hook for the $27 million it would take to buy out the remaining four years of his deal.
The obvious question: Why, after three losing seasons, does Napier still have four long years left? In other words, why did UF athletic director Scott Stricklin give Napier that contract in the first place? Napier was at freaking Louisiana, where he wasn’t even making $1 million a year. Wouldn’t he have gladly accepted a 5-year, $3 million-a-year contract to get his foot in the door as a head coach in the SEC? Or, if Stricklin wanted to be really generous, he could have offered Napier $5 million a year. I’ve never understood why schools pay coaches more than they need to.
The only explanation is ego and status. Some people show off their status by overpaying for luxury cars; college ADs show off their status by overpaying for football coaches. After all, it’s not like Napier was about to be scooped up by some other prestigious program.
At the time of his hiring, LSU was pursuing Brian Kelly and Miami was pursuing Mario Cristobal. Florida was Napier’s only attractive option. It also has been said that after previous coach Dan Mullen left behind such a dilapidated program that Napier needed a longer deal because of the immensity of the rebuilding project.
If that’s the case then why is UF considering firing him two years and three games into the project? The bottom line is this: If Napier gets fired, the Gators will have spent about $65 million buying out their previous four head coaches (Napier, Mullen, Jim McElwain and Will Muschamp) and their staffs. That’s right, $65 million to pay coaches not to coach. Now let’s talk about the Seminoles and how they, too, were used like a roll of toilet paper by super agent Jimmy Sexton, who represents Napier, Norvell and just about every other big-name coach in college football.
After Norvell’s Seminoles won 10 games two seasons ago, FSU gave him a nice, big raise and a contract extension that averaged $8 million a year. Not even a year later, after he went unbeaten last season and flirted with Alabama following Nick Saban’s retirement, FSU athletic director Michael Alford panicked and gave Norvell yet another contract extension — a massive 8-year, $10 million-a-year extension. Now, just a few months later, FSU is 0-3 and probably headed toward a losing season.
Hopefully for Seminole Nation, this is just an aberration and Norvell will get the program back up to speed next year, but what if he doesn’t? What if he has another bad season? You know what happens then, right? The social media vitriol will begin (if it already hasn’t), fans and boosters will start calling for Norvell’s job and the Seminoles would have to come up with $55 million to buy out his contract. Why did Norvell deserve an 8-year extension? Why not 5 years? Or, better yet, 3 years? And why don’t ADs demand that the buyouts go both ways? If a coach gets fired, the school must pay him the remainder of the contract. Likewise, if the coach leaves for another job, he must pay the school the remainder of the contract.
It makes sense, right? Of course, it will never happen because there is no real governmental oversight of financially irresponsible college football programs that continue to perpetuate a business model that is the biggest scam since bottled water. The sport has been getting free labor for generations by not having to financially compensate their employees, er, student athletes. And now that the players are getting paid, the money is not even coming from the schools themselves; it’s coming from the fans and boosters pouring their hard-earned money into NIL collectives.
Then came the groundbreaking news on Tuesday when the University of Tennessee, in what is believed the first arrangement of its kind, told its fans that they are are going to be charged a 10% “talent fee” on tickets to help pay athletes. You know it’s only a matter of time before every other program does the same. Instead of cutting some of the excessive spending, why not just put the financial burden on your loyal – some might say blindly loyal – fans.
College ADs will tell you that there is not enough money in their budget to financially compensate players for playing, but they don’t even think twice when flushing tens of millions of dollars down the toilet to compensate coaches for not coaching. Will somebody please call the state auditor general? Shouldn’t we be more upset about $50 million coaching buyouts than the esteemed guests at Ben Sasse’s Christmas party gorging themselves on bluefin tuna sashimi and lobster tempura rolls? Email me at [email protected].
Hit me up on X (formerly Twitter) @BianchiWrites and listen to my Open Mike radio show every weekday from 6 to 9:30 a.m. on FM 96.
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