State of CPJ's Contract for those Who Care

18in32

Petard Hoister
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Thanks for the link. For anybody still interested in the buyout issue, or interested in CPJ's contract generally...

Termination Provisions

(1) He gets paid $1,000,000 for each season left on the contract if fired without cause. The contract runs through 2022, so if we fire him after this season, he gets $4,000,000. In terms of the general context of CFB coaching contracts, I think that's a pretty favorable buyout relative to his salary. His total compensation for 2018 is a little over $3,000,000, and it rises to $3.4 million by 2022. So we can fire him at a third of the cost to pay him to coach. Usually you've got to pay 100% of unpaid salary.

Curiously, CPJ's attorney overlooked a drafting ambiguity (IMHO) in this separation clause provision. The provision specifically determines how much CPJ is paid if fired without cause "at the end of the 2018 season." But what if he's fired without cause *before* the end of the 2018 season? CPJ probably wins that ultimately at trial, but still it creates an issue to fight over and reduces the settlement value in the event there's anything else to also fight over.

FWIW, I think there are some ST posters who are bizarrely fixated on CPJ's buyout, and seem to think there's something meaningful about it. It's a very small buyout relative to his salary and other coaches' contracts. It is so small that there's no way it's a major consideration for TStan as he evaluates the situation. After all, Football is responsible for 90% of the GTAA budget. While the separation premium is a lot of money to you and me, it's just the cost of doing business (and preserving your business) if you're TStan.

I think it is highly likely that whatever happens this year, CPJ remains our coach next year, just because of how strongly TStan has supported him so far, and because of the 2009 & 2014 legacies. That said, if TStan thinks CPJ is not beneficial to GT football on balance, he's gone, regardless of the buyout. Think about it – there's no way in this era that any coach actually coaches out his contract – that just tells recruits that change is coming and hamstrings recruiting. So the question for the AD is always, "Do I give the HC *one* more year to right the ship, and what's the one year going to cost me either way?" In this case, the *one* year costs $1 mil. That's a tiny amount in CFB today, even for a modestly-resourced program like ours.

(2) Interestingly there's a separate "early retirement" provision. If CPJ tells the GTAA before the end of the season that he's going to retire at the end of the season, then the GTAA agrees to pay him $1 mil. Typically CPJ wouldn't get paid anything if he chooses to quit the job, but I guess we wanted to incentivize him to tell us in advance and allow GT the best possible chance to find a new coach. We don't want him to decide in the middle of May that he's not coming back... we want him to decide that in the middle of October, so we can be fully researched and loaded when the coaching search market is at its peak in Dec/Jan.

(3) In the event CPJ were to take a job with another FBS team before the end of the contract, he would have to pay the GTAA $750k. Interestingly, he pays no penalty if he takes a job coaching at a different level (NFL, FCS, Div. II, high school!) or if he takes any job other than head coach. So he can become a 'special consultant' at Ga So (or whatever) and pay no penalty. (Of course, he can collect the $1 mil described above just be characterizing it as an early retirement, anyhow.)

"Exemplary Performance"

Not that this is particularly relevant to our current situation, but here are the bonuses CPJ is eligible for, since I happen to have the contract open in front of me at the moment...

(4) Graduation Success Rate – Any year the team has a graduation rate above 70% (as calculated by the NCAA), he gets $140,000.

(5) APR – He gets bonuses of $65k, $90k, and $115k for APR rates of 930+, 940+ and 950+.

(6) Wins – He gets bonuses of $50k, $75k and $100k if the team finishes with 6, 7 or 8+ wins. [Aside, a bonus for 6 wins? That's "exemplary performance" nowadays? Bad look, IMHO.]

(7) ACC – He gets $100k for winning the ACC.

(8) Bowls – He gets... $250k for making the CFP, $250k for winning the CFP, $200k for making one of the other Big 6 bowls, $125 for making the Citrus or Russell Athletic bowls, $100k for making the Belk/Sun/Pinstripe/Music City or Taxslayer bowls, $75k for making the Military, Independence, Detroit, Bitcoin, or Birmingham bowls, and $75k for winning a bowl.

(9) ACC COTY – He gets $25k for being named the ACC COTY.

(10) COTY – He gets $50k for being named national COTY (Bobby Dodd or otherwise).

(11) Rankings – He gets $10k for finishing in the Top 25, and $50k for finishing in the Top 10.

There is no "beat UGA" bonus. So if CPJ were to maximize his bonuses in one magical season, he'd take home an extra $1,080,000. As I said, I realize this is irrelevant at the moment, but since I had the new contract in front of me, I thought I'd pass it along.

PS. This is one poorly written contract, from a technical drafting perspective. CPJ's lawyer needs a lesson in contract drafting. There are internal inconsistencies and ambiguities that could be a problem in the event of litigation.

PPS. Am I the only one who thinks it's kind of cool that Marvin Lewis signs CPJ's contract?
 
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18in32

Petard Hoister
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There is no "beat UGA" bonus?

This öööö needs fixin.
My recollection is that CCG had a "beat UGA" bonus but CPJ never has (ironic, huh?). I don't think CPJ likes our focus on COFH.

By the way, CPJ's first contract (in 2007) also had a $100k bonus for winning the Coastal, even if we were co-champions who didn't make the ACCCG. But that disappeared in his first extension, which was signed after the 2008 season – when we were co-champs but didn't go to the ACCCG because of the VT head-to-head tiebreaker.
 

smokey_wasp

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Thanks for doing the work and clarifying things.

My prediction: If a losing season is assured and the seat is scorching, he will retire and take the 1 mil he would have gotten if we fired him last year. Wouldnt be shocked if he and TStan have a verbal agreement to that effect.

If the itch is still there, maybe the KSU job opens and he wins one more FCS natty and then hangs em up.
 
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76tornados

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Is it OK to speak those 3 words, or does the hammer drop?

Fire Jaul Pohnson!!
 

18in32

Petard Hoister
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Thanks for doing the work and clarifying things.

My prediction: If a losing season is assured and the seat is scorching, he will retire and take the 1 mil he would have gotten if we fired him last year. Wouldnt be shocked if he and TStan have a verbal agreement to that effect.

If the itch is still there, maybe the KSU job opens and he wins one more FCS natty and then hangs em up.
Yeah, the early retirement provision is really interesting. It gives CPJ the incentive to 'depart with grace' – albeit at the cost of $2-3 mil. But when you net out the numbers (minus agency fees, taxes, etc), and put it in the context of CPJ's overall net worth ($14 mil?), and the legacy and pride in his accomplishments... you can see why it might make sense for him to retire, lose a few dollars, but save some pride. – And maybe leave things with the sense that he helped the GTAA move on in a productive way...
 

aeromech

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Sounds like a contract between 2 parties that trust each other to me. Also sounds like a contract that highly favors Georgia Tech with a coach that isn't a weasel. In a basic sense it sounds like CPJ's position is that if GT doesn't want him here then he doesn't want to be held here due to the contract burden, I respect that.

I think when TStan got here he found our program lagging in several areas that were highly detrimental to the football program. How much TStan blames this season on CPJ versus the malaise and mismanagement of MBob will no doubt factor into whether CPJ stays or not. I think CPJ gets another year unless we see more first half of Pitt type performance after the Clemson game.
 

savbandjacket

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It’s not a “mutually drafted” agreement so neither party takes the hit for any ambiguities?
 

18in32

Petard Hoister
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Sounds like a contract between 2 parties that trust each other to me. Also sounds like a contract that highly favors Georgia Tech with a coach that isn't a weasel. In a basic sense it sounds like CPJ's position is that if GT doesn't want him here then he doesn't want to be held here due to the contract burden, I respect that.

I think when TStan got here he found our program lagging in several areas that were highly detrimental to the football program. How much TStan blames this season on CPJ versus the malaise and mismanagement of MBob will no doubt factor into whether CPJ stays or not. I think CPJ gets another year unless we see more first half of Pitt type performance after the Clemson game.
Good post.

To put the current state of his buy-out in perspective...

Currently, if we fire him after 2018, we owe him $4 mil.
If we'd fired him after the renegotiation that followed the surprisingly good 2008 season, we would've owed him $17 mil.

The contract pretty accurately reflects the market. He's had a string of bad years. He ain't worth a lot out there right now. And for P5 HC's, $4 mil in separation pay ain't "a lot".
 

18in32

Petard Hoister
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It’s not a “mutually drafted” agreement so neither party takes the hit for any ambiguities?
There's no language about authorship in either the original base agreement or any of the amendments.
 

18in32

Petard Hoister
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That is shocking to me with a contract this big.
I can imagine reasons to include that clause, and reasons not to, depending on a lot of factors. That said, there's lots of other evidence of poor draftsmanship in the contract. Multiple places specific compensation items are poorly drafted. For example, when listing the bonuses, it says they are "non-cumulative" – which they appear to mean, if we finish in the Top 10, you get the Top 10 bonus but not also the Top 25 bonus. But they should've just had a Top 10 bonus and a Top 11-25 bonus, and then there's no ambiguity. Or... the contract says the bowl bonuses are not cumulative, but then lists $250 for appearing in the CFP and $250 for winning it. That means either the 'non-cumulative' language is wrong, or the second $250 bonus is extraneous and duplicative. Neither makes any sense, so the reader just does what seems to make sense (ie, paying him extra for winning a NC).

Just very sloppy, but perhaps that's to be expected between long-time business partners who don't see these details as particularly relevant. If CPJ did actually win the CFP, GT would be happy to pay him an extra $250, I'm sure.
 

texstinger

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There is no "beat UGA" bonus?

This öööö needs fixin.
Several folks have pointed this out for years and have called liars. or at the very least, ridiculed for it.

No bonus for winning the most important game of the year.

Cowardly and stupid.
 

texstinger

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8,816
Thanks for the link. For anybody still interested in the buyout issue, or interested in CPJ's contract generally...

Termination Provisions

(1) He gets paid $1,000,000 for each season left on the contract if fired without cause. The contract runs through 2022, so if we fire him after this season, he gets $4,000,000. In terms of the general context of CFB coaching contracts, I think that's a pretty favorable buyout relative to his salary. His total compensation for 2018 is a little over $3,000,000, and it rises to $3.4 million by 2022. So we can fire him at a third of the cost to pay him to coach. Usually you've got to pay 100% of unpaid salary.

Curiously, CPJ's attorney overlooked a drafting ambiguity (IMHO) in this separation clause provision. The provision specifically determines how much CPJ is paid if fired without cause "at the end of the 2018 season." But what if he's fired without cause *before* the end of the 2018 season? CPJ probably wins that ultimately at trial, but still it creates an issue to fight over and reduces the settlement value in the event there's anything else to also fight over.

FWIW, I think there are some ST posters who are bizarrely fixated on CPJ's buyout, and seem to think there's something meaningful about it. It's a very small buyout relative to his salary and other coaches' contracts. It is so small that there's no way it's a major consideration for TStan as he evaluates the situation. After all, Football is responsible for 90% of the GTAA budget. While the separation premium is a lot of money to you and me, it's just the cost of doing business (and preserving your business) if you're TStan.

I think it is highly likely that whatever happens this year, CPJ remains our coach next year, just because of how strongly TStan has supported him so far, and because of the 2009 & 2014 legacies. That said, if TStan thinks CPJ is not beneficial to GT football on balance, he's gone, regardless of the buyout. Think about it – there's no way in this era that any coach actually coaches out his contract – that just tells recruits that change is coming and hamstrings recruiting. So the question for the AD is always, "Do I give the HC *one* more year to right the ship, and what's the one year going to cost me either way?" In this case, the *one* year costs $1 mil. That's a tiny amount in CFB today, even for a modestly-resourced program like ours.

(2) Interestingly there's a separate "early retirement" provision. If CPJ tells the GTAA before the end of the season that he's going to retire at the end of the season, then the GTAA agrees to pay him $1 mil. Typically CPJ wouldn't get paid anything if he chooses to quit the job, but I guess we wanted to incentivize him to tell us in advance and allow GT the best possible chance to find a new coach. We don't want him to decide in the middle of May that he's not coming back... we want him to decide that in the middle of October, so we can be fully researched and loaded when the coaching search market is at its peak in Dec/Jan.

(3) In the event CPJ were to take a job with another FBS team before the end of the contract, he would have to pay the GTAA $750k. Interestingly, he pays no penalty if he takes a job coaching at a different level (NFL, FCS, Div. II, high school!) or if he takes any job other than head coach. So he can become a 'special consultant' at Ga So (or whatever) and pay no penalty. (Of course, he can collect the $1 mil described above just be characterizing it as an early retirement, anyhow.)

"Exemplary Performance"

Not that this is particularly relevant to our current situation, but here are the bonuses CPJ is eligible for, since I happen to have the contract open in front of me at the moment...

(4) Graduation Success Rate – Any year the team has a graduation rate above 70% (as calculated by the NCAA), he gets $140,000.

(5) APR – He gets bonuses of $65k, $90k, and $115k for APR rates of 930+, 940+ and 950+.

(6) Wins – He gets bonuses of $50k, $75k and $100k if the team finishes with 6, 7 or 8+ wins. [Aside, a bonus for 6 wins? That's "exemplary performance" nowadays? Bad look, IMHO.]

(7) ACC – He gets $100k for winning the ACC.

(8) Bowls – He gets... $250k for making the CFP, $250k for winning the CFP, $200k for making one of the other Big 6 bowls, $125 for making the Citrus or Russell Athletic bowls, $100k for making the Belk/Sun/Pinstripe/Music City or Taxslayer bowls, $75k for making the Military, Independence, Detroit, Bitcoin, or Birmingham bowls, and $75k for winning a bowl.

(9) ACC COTY – He gets $25k for being named the ACC COTY.

(10) COTY – He gets $50k for being named national COTY (Bobby Dodd or otherwise).

(11) Rankings – He gets $10k for finishing in the Top 25, and $50k for finishing in the Top 10.

There is no "beat UGA" bonus. So if CPJ were to maximize his bonuses in one magical season, he'd take home an extra $1,080,000. As I said, I realize this is irrelevant at the moment, but since I had the new contract in front of me, I thought I'd pass it along.

PS. This is one poorly written contract, from a technical drafting perspective. CPJ's lawyer needs a lesson in contract drafting. There are internal inconsistencies and ambiguities that could be a problem in the event of litigation.

PPS. Am I the only one who thinks it's kind of cool that Marvin Lewis signs CPJ's contract?
Very much appreciated and succinct analysis. Thank you for this.
 

smokey_wasp

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Several folks have pointed this out for years and have called liars. or at the very least, ridiculed for it.

No bonus for winning the most important game of the year.

Cowardly and stupid.
I think sometimes our administration is obsessed with the idea that uga thinks we are obsessed with them. So they try to prove that we aren't. I agree a rivalry bonus is a no-brainer.
 

Jeffgt00

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I think sometimes our administration is obsessed with the idea that uga thinks we are obsessed with them. So they try to prove that we aren't. I agree a rivalry bonus is a no-brainer.
If I could only choose one, I'd rather win the ACC than beat uga. There should be a bonus, but it should be a small one.
 

18in32

Petard Hoister
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No bonus for winning the most important game of the year.
Cowardly and stupid.
I think sometimes our administration is obsessed with the idea that uga thinks we are obsessed with them. So they try to prove that we aren't. I agree a rivalry bonus is a no-brainer.
I highly doubt CPJ even wanted the UGA bonus. I know that sounds strange (it would be free money, right?) but it wouldn't be a lot of money (probably $50k), and it would be part of an emphasis that CPJ has always wanted to de-emphasize. I think he'd be happy not to be playing a very difficult game with no conference value, that we often lose, that hurts us in our home market, that leaves fans perpetually unhappy, and that ends the season on a down note.

Having said that, perhaps the GTAA should have insisted on the UGA bonus as a way of communicating to him how important that is to our program. But that would have been a little strange to insist on giving him money when he wasn't asking for it.

In any event... clearly our next HC needs to be someone who welcomes COFH. It's the kind of thing that makes coaching CFB special.
 
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smokey_wasp

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If I could only choose one, I'd rather win the ACC than beat uga. There should be a bonus, but it should be a small one.
It could be small, that's fine. Just something to show that it matters to them because it matters to the fans. It's also a pretty good accomplishment given where ugag is at right now.
 
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