CPJ's Buyout

M

mem

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Just read where the buyout clause in the new extension calls for a $1mil buyout next year, and then it decreases to only $750k after that. Anybody but me a tad alarmed that this is so relatively low? I know Johnson is happy as a lark (and I love his new raise and extension), but $1mil or $750k isn't going to scare off most of the big programs who may be interested down the line. (And no, I don't think he's going anywhere anytime soon, but the risk is always there, especially when you leave yourself unprotected)

Just curious if the number may be relatively low b/c GT wanted it that way should things turn sour (don't have to pay him off) or if Johnson wanted it that way should he get the itch in a few years.
 
Probably mutual desire....but I agree with you that it's lower than I would have liked....
 
I kinda wanted to see a bigger buyout, too. But I read an article recently that generally coaches and schools are going away from buyouts, and most coaches in PJ's echelon of compensation don't have big buyouts. Their ability to enforce is more or less questionable depending on the state. Also if a coach really wants to leave for a bigger program, then a big buyout doesn't seem to help much. See Rodriguez to Michigan (also demonstrating possible unenforcability).

The point of PJ's new contract is to make it so noone is very likely to offer him a significant enough raise to entice him away from GT for the money alone. As Barnhart said, PJ is clearly not all about money and he equally clearly wants to be at GT. But at a certain point there's professional pride and common sense involved.
 
Guys, if every coaching job was to become available tomorrow, tell me where PJ would go? I don't think many of you give Georgia Tech enough credit for how good of a school this is.
 
what was the previous buy out?

my 2 cents about all the CPJ talk: Stop worrying about if he would leave or not. Stop the speculation both ways, it doesn't help anything. Love CPJ. Focus on football.
 
Yellow Fever said:
Guys, if every coaching job was to become available tomorrow, tell me where PJ would go? I don't think many of you give Georgia Tech enough credit for how good of a school this is.
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Seriously.

When YOU are looking at jobs, what would make YOU uproot your family?

Significant pay increase. You wouldn't do it for 10% - 20% would you?
More potential for advancement.
More job security.
Better work environment.
Better standard of living (crime, weather, schools, proximity to relatives, etc.)

I'm sure there are others.

GT is in a very desirable location. It offers very good job security compared to other top 25 BCS schools. Atlanta offers very nice places to live, particularly for millionaires.

I will admit that, IMHO, the ability for USC, Texas, UF, and to a lesser extent Notre Dame and LSU to place a coach in the enviable position of having better players than the teams they face is the one advantage that is tough to discount.
 
GTCrew said:
I will admit that, IMHO, the ability for USC, Texas, UF, and to a lesser extent Notre Dame and LSU to place a coach in the enviable position of having better players than the teams they face is the one advantage that is tough to discount.
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PJ has shown throughout his career that this is MUCH less of a concern to him than it is to other coaches.

He spent 8 years in Hawaii and 8 in Annapolis, and he's never worked at a big football factory.

He believes he can win anywhere, and he gets a kick out of blowing peoples' minds with his results. You can't really exceed expectations at a Texas or Florida that gets top-5 recruiting classes every year and reasonably expects to compete for the MNC on a consistent basis.
 
The buyout is for the school, not the coach. The school could always opt to waive a buyout in negotiations to dump someone if they wanted to change.

The raise wasn't big enough to justify a big buyout to lock him in more. And, as others have said, we shouldn't need a big buyout to keep him for now.
 
GoldenTornado said:
PJ has shown throughout his career that this is MUCH less of a concern to him than it is to other coaches.

He spent 8 years in Hawaii and 8 in Annapolis, and he's never worked at a big football factory.

He believes he can win anywhere, and he gets a kick out of blowing peoples' minds with his results. You can't really exceed expectations at a Texas or Florida that gets top-5 recruiting classes every year and reasonably expects to compete for the MNC on a consistent basis.
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Very good point.

If you really want to leave a lasting mark on the NCAA then don't go to Bama or Florida....you transform a school into a football power. Love him or hate him, Bobby Bowden has coaching credentials because he built a national power from ground up.

P.S.
And once you have built a consistent winning program it offsets the recrtuing advantage the football name schools have, because you become a "name" school.
 
I think the buyout seems reasonable. What is key is that we are paying him enough to show him that our interests and his are aligned: winning football games.

I expect that all parties will be closely watching the selection of the next GT president. If it is someone in the mold of Dr. Clough, who puts stock (and invests heavily) in athletics but defers to the athletic director, then everyone will be happy. PJ, if our early read on him is correct (he wins) will be here until he retires.

If it's a Dr. Adams who loves athletics and likes to meddle, there could be problems.

If it's someone who hates athletics, there could be problems.

We won't know which type they are for a while, but, with a student athelete on the search committee we've sent a strong signal to potential candidates.

The only uncertainty in my mind about this is the next GT president. Usually new presidents clean house. If the new one is the right type, our first hint will be when he retains DRad.
 
I had assumed that buyout figure was a per-year amount... So if he left with three years remaining they'd pay 3x to us. Yeah, 750K seems irrelevant...
 
My first take was that it was low. But these large buyouts don't seem to work. If a school wants a coach they seem willing to pay whatever the cost. Alot of us didn't think DRad would pull the trigger on CG last year because of the financial status of the AD and the good sized buyout but he knew it was time. I think your better off investing in the things coaches want like facilities and making them not want to leave.
 
Buy out clauses are only worth what your attorney can win out of it, we still haven't gotten any money out of O'Leary, have we?
 
beej67 said:
They do tend to give the AA a revenue boost.
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That's true, although percentage wise you're prabably more likely to fire your coach than have him hired away from you, so you more likely to have to pay a buyout than receive one(atleast at the BCS schools).
 
Two things:

If he has any desire to stay in one place a long time and make his name synonymous with it he is getting to the age where he needs to find it. He's in his mid 40's so if he stays a few years and starts looking then he's going to get to the point where he doesn't have enough career left to really make a mark anywhere, other than putting together one good team over a few years.

Going along with that, he's a smart guy and he's been making good money awhile so I'll bet he or the guy he hired to do it have him set up with several million dollars in the bank already, so while he's moving along using upo the rest of his career like I mentioned in the first paragraph his bank account is getting bigger and bigger so the incremental utility of a raise of a few hundred thou will get less and less.

5 years from now if he is as good as we think he is he'll be very attractive to others but he will have a great deal invested here and he also may have his only opportunity at a legacy here because it'll be too late to build one elsewhere. I think we have a real good shot at keeping him for the rest of his career if he's good enough to make us want to.
 
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