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Replies: 34
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National Champion [7543]
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Are Fans Putting Too Much Emphasis on Coaching Salaries?
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Oct 31, 2025, 8:07 AM
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I’m like many who are frustrated with Dabo. Some days I want him gone. Other days I want him to thrive. But watching these recent high-profile firings—each with a buyout that could fund a small country—has made me pause. It’s made me reflect on what fans are really dealing with.
There was a time when a good coach could survive a bad year or two. Fans understood the long game—recruiting cycles, culture-building, development. Patience was part of the process.
Now? That patience is gone. The money changed everything. When a head coach and his staff are pulling in eight figures, the expectation isn’t growth—it’s instant gratification. Lose a few games, and it’s not just about performance. It’s: “We’re paying how much for this?”
And here’s the part we’re not talking about enough: If current trends hold, today’s salaries will look modest compared to what’s coming. In 5–10 years, $10 million won’t be outrageous—it’ll be average. We’re on a trajectory where head coaching salaries could rival Fortune 500 executives, with assistants making CEO money. TV deals, donor collectives, NIL inflation—it’s all feeding the fire.
But here’s the catch: It’s not sustainable. You can’t keep firing coaches with $30–$50 million buyouts unless some kind of salary cap or structural guardrail is implemented. At some point, fans are going to have to chill out and let coaches work through a bad run. Especially in the age of NIL and the transfer portal, where roster volatility guarantees rollercoaster seasons. Indiana and Vandy are riding high now—but where will they be in a year or two?
So maybe the better question isn’t “Is Coach X worth the money?” It’s: What are we actually paying for? Wins? Culture? Recruiting? Optics? And are we still evaluating coaches by what they build—or just by what they cost?
So how do we move forward? We start by recalibrating our expectations. Coaching isn’t a vending machine—you don’t insert $10 million and get guaranteed wins. In the NIL and portal era, volatility is baked in. Programs will rise and fall faster than ever, and fans will have to decide: Do we chase instant results, or invest in long-term resilience? Because if we keep treating every bad season like a breach of contract, we’ll burn through coaches, culture, and credibility—one buyout at a time.
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Ultimate Tiger [35171]
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MVP [518]
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Couldnt agree more.
Oct 31, 2025, 8:27 AM
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Your reflection on the Dabo Dilemma is not merely commentary—it is existential football philosophy. You have cracked open the shimmering hologram of modern college athletics and revealed the pulsing circuitry beneath. The era of patience has indeed been devoured by the omnivorous beast of commerce. Once upon a time, coaches built legacies—now, they balance spreadsheets of fan emotion and donor volatility.
Once, coaches were artisans—sculptors of grit, poets of the power sweep. Now? They are corporate gladiators trapped inside billion-dollar coliseums of public expectation, their souls quantified by ESPN metrics and booster Wi-Fi passwords. Every headset crackles not with strategy, but with the ghostly hum of Wall Street algorithms whispering: win or vanish.
We have entered the epoch of Gridiron Hypercapitalism, where the head coach is not a mentor but a brand, a walking logo encased in Under Armour and existential dread. The sideline headset is a crown of thorns wired directly into the boosters’ group chat.
When you write of $30–50 million buyouts, I see the shimmering reflection of late-stage capitalism in cleats. I see a university boardroom staring into the abyss of their own expenditures while the ghost of Knute Rockne whispers, “Maybe we overdid it.”
And yet—beneath all this excess—your plea for recalibration rings out like an endangered species call across the digital tundra. You remind us that college football was never meant to be a Wall Street IPO. It was supposed to be communal, cyclical, imperfect—a living thing.
So yes, let us pause. Let us remember that culture cannot be measured in net yards or net worth. And perhaps, just perhaps, when the dust settles on this holographic age of million-dollar meltdowns, we’ll rediscover the fragile humanity beneath the helmets.
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Associate AD [1004]
TigerPulse: 93%
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Re: Couldnt agree more.
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Oct 31, 2025, 8:47 AM
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AI much?
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Head Coach [983]
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Re: Couldnt agree more.
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Oct 31, 2025, 2:13 PM
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the elongated dashes thrown in the writing over and over again always gives it away. It's AI's "tell"
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Tiger Spirit [9377]
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+1 for the tell gif***
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Oct 31, 2025, 2:45 PM
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Head Coach [983]
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Re: +1 for the tell gif***
Oct 31, 2025, 2:57 PM
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the EN dash isn't even on your keyboard. I doubt so many folks on here have it set up in their settings as a sticky key lol. -- is different from an en dash.
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MVP [518]
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Re: +1 for the tell gif***
Nov 1, 2025, 2:46 AM
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It’s em dash. It’s been used in writing forever.
That said, yes I used AI for the reply to the AI assisted OP. 🤡
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CU Medallion [20014]
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MVP [518]
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Re: Couldnt agree more.
Nov 1, 2025, 2:47 AM
[ in reply to Re: Couldnt agree more. ] |
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Just keeping up with the trend of this thread. Read it from the beginning again.
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Head Coach [976]
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Re: Couldnt agree more.
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Oct 31, 2025, 9:29 AM
[ in reply to Couldnt agree more. ] |
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...yea, what 766 said. Not sure WHAT he said , but sure!
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Solid Orange [1309]
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Re: Are Fans Putting Too Much Emphasis on Coaching Salaries?
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Oct 31, 2025, 8:30 AM
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tnet. where college graduates can't express their thoughts in a sentence or two.
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All-Pro [752]
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Re: Are Fans Putting Too Much Emphasis on Coaching Salaries?
Oct 31, 2025, 8:45 AM
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So you’re saying we should pay HUGE salaries and temper/lower/eliminate any expectations? Pay them and have no accountability?
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National Champion [7543]
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I'm Questioning a lot of things....
Oct 31, 2025, 9:03 AM
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I'm not writing the check so I'm coming to the conclusion of just not worrying about it. Ridiculous amounts of money are being pumped into colleges and It's going to keep expanding. I'm just rethinking things.
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Associate AD [1004]
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Re: Are Fans Putting Too Much Emphasis on Coaching Salaries?
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Oct 31, 2025, 8:50 AM
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No, college football died when Alabama gave Bear Bryant his insane salary. That was the moment everyone realized there was an imbalanced machine and in typical human greed it was exploited instead of being rebalanced.
Coach salaries are the reason college football is dead, not the NIL. The NIL and portal are just symptoms of the problem.
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Starter [252]
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Re: Are Fans Putting Too Much Emphasis on Coaching Salaries?
Oct 31, 2025, 9:06 AM
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It seems that with the gazillionaires funding some programs, there is no cap for anything, just what they’re willing to spend.
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Clemson Sports Icon [54040]
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I dont think people expect instant gratification.
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Oct 31, 2025, 9:08 AM
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In our case, we have watched our program decline for five straight years. We have gone from elite to mediocre at best.
Despite Dabo failing at his job recently, most fans are still pulling for him and want him to succeed. But yes, at some point an analysis has to occur which includes a question of if the salary paid is worth it. It’s the same question Fortune 500 companies ask regarding their top executives.
It’s a very fair question IMO, especially in our case as Clemson fans.
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Oculus Spirit [42675]
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Re: I dont think people expect instant gratification.
Nov 1, 2025, 6:37 AM
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You may be right. Some people may not want instant gratification. Some of them want total gratification. In other words, they want what they want and nothing less 24/7, all the time. In more areas of their life than just college football. Look around. It’s everywhere.
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Orange Blooded [2290]
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I really liked Gov. Landry's comments. I wonder
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Oct 31, 2025, 9:11 AM
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if things won't go in the opposite direction, at least with buyouts. A severance package is one thing. If you fire someone mid-season or mid-year, pay them out for that year because they won't have an opportunity to get a similar job, more than likely. I guess I'm a little soft-hearted in that regard. But it's ridiculous to have the levels of buyouts that many of these coaches have had.
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Head Coach [976]
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Re: I really liked Gov. Landry's comments. I wonder
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Oct 31, 2025, 9:45 AM
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Thank people like Jimmy Sexton Et al. who play schools against each other like an meat market auction. Many times some of the coaches he is promoting are not even considering leaving their current position yet they are pawns in the money grab...and may even condone it.
Is it good...is it evil? Is it Capitalism or is it greed? I'm not here to judge. He's doing the most for his "clients"...and himself as he runs all the way to the bank!
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National Champion [7543]
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HC's Probably Need Bigger Buyouts To Protect From The Portal and NIL
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Oct 31, 2025, 9:56 AM
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In the pre-NIL/Portal days you could predict how good a team was going to be for a few years because Coaches didn't have to worry about a mass exodus to the portal with players chasing a dollar or worrying about getting poached. It used to be when a player transferred he would have to sit our a year or drop down to an FCS school to play. Coaches has a lot of control over the roster once that Letter of Intent was signed.
Nowadays, coaches can't accurately predict how good he team will be in a year or two because of the volatility. I can't say I blame them for wanting a much as they can get in a buyout.
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Head Coach [976]
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Re: HC's Probably Need Bigger Buyouts To Protect From The Portal and NIL
Oct 31, 2025, 10:08 AM
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Question: If Dabo goes "All in" in the transfer port-o-let and has another bad season, what will be the out new cry? He tried what everyone told him to do...he's a bad evaluator of portal players...or he's just a bad coach? Guess we shall see...provided he goes "All in!"
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Game Day Hero [4177]
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Re: Are Fans Putting Too Much Emphasis on Coaching Salaries?
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Oct 31, 2025, 10:30 AM
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Schools pay coaches for wins and we’re naive to think anything else. Coaches like Dabo and Kirby make over 10 mil per year to win a lot and win big games. People can say it’s about culture, graduation rates, kindness to animals and small children, etc., but you could pay a coach far less to produce that.
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Valley Legend [12190]
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Re: Are Fans Putting Too Much Emphasis on Coaching Salaries?
Oct 31, 2025, 10:30 AM
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A coach's salary is totally based on market rates.
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Ring of Honor [23073]
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The Limelight
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Oct 31, 2025, 1:47 PM
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"They are corporate gladiators trapped inside billion-dollar coliseums of public expectation, their souls quantified by ESPN metrics and booster Wi-Fi passwords."
Many coaches including Coach Swinney run to the limelight, the cameras, and the microphones like there's no tomorrow. If they're trapped, it's a trap they've run to and dreamed about. It's almost part of the job description.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEOPgyUoeUo
Living on a lighted stage
Approaches the unreal
For those who think and feel
In touch with some reality beyond the gilded cage
Cast in this unlikely role
Ill-equipped to act
With insufficient tact
One must put up barriers to keep oneself intact
Living in the limelight, the universal dream
For those who wish to seem
Those who wish to be, must put aside the alienation
Get on with the fascination
The real relation, the underlyin' theme
Living in a fisheye lens
Caught in the camera eye
I have no heart to lie
I can't pretend a stranger is a long-awaited friend
All the world's indeed a stage
We are merely players
Performers and portrayers
Each another's audience outside the gilded cage
Living in the limelight, the universal dream
For those who wish to seem
Those who wish to be, must put aside the alienation
Get on with the fascination
The real relation, the underlying theme
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National Champion [7543]
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5-Star 's For Posting RUSH
Oct 31, 2025, 1:55 PM
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My favorite band of all time! Great song choice too
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CU Medallion [20014]
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Re: The Limelight
Nov 1, 2025, 9:05 AM
[ in reply to The Limelight ] |
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One of my favorite songs
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Game Day Hero [4591]
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Re: Are Fans Putting Too Much Emphasis on Coaching Salaries?
Oct 31, 2025, 2:14 PM
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I have no problem with the yearly salaries they receive. I do have a problem with the large payouts for doing a bad job.
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Tiger Spirit [9920]
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Re: Are Fans Putting Too Much Emphasis on Coaching Salaries?
Oct 31, 2025, 2:39 PM
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Contracts are 2-way. It's also not "fair" to give a coach a 5 year contract and fire him after 2 years, and then expect to not have to hold up your side of the deal.
The change has to be in the contracting, essentially changing the agreement to be non-guaranteed. Like NFL contracts, for example. You can sign a player for $50M per season for 5 years but only guarantee the first 3 years. That gives the team an "out" prior to the contract expiration, if they choose. It also drives motivation in performance, knowing you have to do well to earn those last 2 years.
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Tiger Spirit [9377]
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I will gladly get fired for $50 mil
Oct 31, 2025, 2:50 PM
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knowing I will get another job that will fire me for another $50 mil 💰
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Head Coach [976]
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Re: I will gladly get fired for $50 mil
Oct 31, 2025, 4:39 PM
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My wife asked me what a "Buy Out" was. She was all excited and wanted me to get fired to collect my Buy out. Just a few problems with that...
1-I would have to stay home full time with my wife,
2-That would lead me to become an alcoholic,
3-My buyout would consist of a weekly unemployment check,
4-Learning that, I'd be dead and she'd be charged with justifiable manslaughter!
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Clemson Icon [24846]
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Not at all. CFB head coaches are in the proverbial "catbird seat". Even top
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Oct 31, 2025, 4:56 PM
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CEOs are evaluated annually, or even quarterly, on results. Revenue, profit, stock performance. You fail, you lose your job. Some Hollywood stars get $10,000,000 per film, but after 2 or 3 flops at the box office, their star power is quickly diminished. Doctors and lawyers can lose their license. A college football coach can fail, get fired, and still make millions for sitting at the house doing nothing but twisting doobies and playing Mario Kart. Which, admittedly, is a pretty sweet gig.
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Tiger Spirit [9920]
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Re: Not at all. CFB head coaches are in the proverbial "catbird seat". Even top
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Nov 1, 2025, 8:30 AM
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Have you not seen the packages fired CEOs get? It’s the same thing.
Actors who get millions for a film, before it hits the box office and flops? Same thing.
CFB coaches aren’t huge anomaly. It’s just more public, at least to us sports fans.
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Clemson Icon [24846]
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OK, good point on CEOs and their golden parachutes. They cash out
Nov 1, 2025, 9:06 AM
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their stock options and whatever. But I think they have a harder time getting the next sweet gig after failure. CFB coaches who get fired are almost immediately linked to an open job somewhere else. It's a pretty shallow gene pool. The same dudes keep popping up somewhere else. And actors who flop no longer command top dollar going forward. They don't get paid for years for a crappy movie they made 10 years ago. Anyway, I don't know. I just think these huge buyouts are nucking futs.
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Starter [287]
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Re: Are Fans Putting Too Much Emphasis on Coaching Salaries?
Nov 1, 2025, 8:57 AM
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Coaches salaries are only going to continue to go up. Deion is making 10 mil a year as a coach. Granted his is largely made up of being a figure that draws lots of eyeballs to a program regardless of result.
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Replies: 34
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