Pitt is not a deep-pocketed SEC or B1G program. Can we all agree on that? There is no Michigan Money Cannon to fire. There is no crazed, big-money booster that will cut a check in exchange for more influence like at Auburn. Pitt also does not subsidize the athletic department on the back of the students or from the academic side of the university (Rutger, UConn — how are things going?). Nor is the athletic department about to take out ridiculous loans that put them so deep that they will head to conferences they don’t fit (What’s up, Maryland?).
Pitt is a fiscally conservative athletic department that is only now starting to receive the full share of ACC revenue. This is only year four of being in the ACC, and Pitt did not leap into full cuts in year one. They also had moneys to be paid to the Big East/AAC upon departure. To say nothing of the new outlays required to be a part of the ACC.
If Pitt wants to fire Stallings after two years, and hire someone with any sort of pedigree/upside; Pitt will need to have a lot of boosters coordinating the cash.
Let’s take this in relatively clinical stages.
Stallings signed a six-year contract that pays roughly $2.5 million per year. His buyout at this point is essentially the rest of his contract — $10 million. Since Pennsylvania has some absurdly bad sunshine laws, with even more absurd exemptions; we do not know how that money is payable.
The worst case scenario is that the entirety of the buyout comes due and payable within a short period after termination. See: Sumlin, Kevin, Texas A&M.
Then there is the buyout that is paid in installments with a mitigation or offset clause.
Arkansas will pay Bret Bielema a buyout of $11.935 million, the Razorback Foundation announced Tuesday.
Bielema will be paid about $320,000 a month until Dec. 31, 2020. The payments began Nov. 25.
That means Bielema will be paid more than $3.84 million a year during the payout period. That would rank him in the top 25 of coaches salaries — even though he won’t be coaching.
The buyout, of course, is subject to Bielema’s duty to mitigate, with his future income offsetting what he is owed.
Presumably that would also include work as a TV analyst as well as coaching.
Then there is the possibility of a negotiated buyout. Where the coach takes less money then the buyout language but gives up the need to offset.
This is what Matt Canada did with LSU.
In an release from the school amended sometime Saturday, the school said it will give Canada $1 million before Jan. 31, and he will receive another $700,000 in 20 equal monthly installments before the end of each subsequent month.
The original release from the school did not include those buyout terms.
The $1.7 million is slightly more than half of the $3.25 million he was due to earn through the end of his contract after the 2019 season.
That move allowed Canada to quickly take the Maryland OC position without any concerns of it offsetting the buyout and gave him a nice lump sum up front.
We don’t know for sure what Stallings’ contract says, but a reasonable guess is that it is paid in installments for the duration of what the contract’s length was. In this case, the remaining 4 years.
That would work out to $208,333 per month for 48 months. Offset/mitigation language would likely be in there. Unlike college football, though, the money isn’t so big for even major program assistant jobs or as a TV analyst.
I think back to what Stallings said in his all-access ESPN piece.
“I took the job with my eyes wide open. We’ve taken the initial steps that we had to take to get it back on the right path, and that means we’re getting our head bumped a little bit this year, which none of us enjoy, but it’s just going to be a necessary part of it. We could have tried to quick-fix it and make it a better team this year but not have any ability to sustain success. But we took the approach that we’re trying to build it, and build it right and have it last, and that probably made things a little bit worse in the short term, but hopefully it’s going to make things better in the long run.”
You can take that as Stallings made all moves under the assumption that he would be given the time to build the program back into a more sustainable model. Perfectly logical.
The other way to look at it is Stallings very first statement, “I took the job with my eyes wide open.”
He knew what was coming after year one. He knew plenty of coaches turned the job down because of the expectations of following Dixon and how many players would be needed to be replaced.
And that is why his buyout is essentially his annual salary. Stallings knew that if this went south, fast, this was it for him. At best he would possibly get re-hired at a high mid-major (MWC or MVC) or as an assistant at a P5, but his earning power would be average.
What I’m saying, is he is not giving up his buyout. He might settle for more cash up-front, but Pitt would have to cough that up. He has no reason to do anything else. Even if Pitt pulled it off, then Pitt would have to find the money for the next coach and staff.
That next coach would also have some leverage. I mean, regardless of the incompetence of Stallings, you are firing the guy after 2 years. You have to hire the next guy and somehow assure him that he will be given some level of patience without years and/or just as bad a buyout? How?
This is college basketball. As easy as it may seem to point to Pitt’s relatively recent history with the turnaround under Howland in a few years; it is just as easy to point to plenty of teams’ slog from anything other then mediocrity. Regardless of the hire and time — Georgia, Clemson, Wake Forest, Mississippi St., Ole Miss., Minnesota, St. Johns, and on.
Hell, let’s talk Marquette. Buzz Williams brilliantly leaped from the Golden Eagles to the Hokies four years ago. We can all admire the way VT has improved each year, and look at how players he had to rely on to start as overmatched freshmen have graciously receded to being role players as the talent and depth improved. He has them in a position to go the NCAA Tournament two straight years for the first time in 30 years. Yet, would that sort of build back for Pitt have been sufficient after pushing out Dixon?
Marquette, meanwhile, slowly rebounded back to the NCAA last year, but fallen to middle of the pack in the Big East and is at best a bubble team. Unable to build on past momentum or sell on the future. Stuck in a frustrating purgatory of not being sure whether their present coach can go much further or risk rebooting when recruiting has been solid. While acknowledging how much they had to rebuild, there is a question on how much better they will be.
Whether Stallings goes after this year or gets a third year before being (presumably) put out of his misery; the one thing he would have accomplished is resetting expectations for the next coach to manage.
I have written more than once that if Pitt fires Stallings after Year Two of his contract we’ll find it almost impossible to land a decent HC to follow him. No one wants to come to a school where the tolerance level for losing is so short – and two years is a very short fuse. I could see it if we were NC or Duke or a grand program like that – but we are not.
It all revolves around $$$ at Pitt. Sure the university would like to have successful athletics across the board, especially in the high value sports like FB and BB but to do that on a consistent basis takes outside money – as mentioned in your opening paragraph.
Again, that isn’t a resource Pitt has.
Much as I hate to see it, probably two more years of ineptitude. He won’t walk away from 10 mil., who would?
Another reason this was a bad hire. They could have hired a young up and comer for a lot less money and without the huge buyout. Thanks again Barnes. Just plain lazy.
Surely the BOT is used to empty seats and lost revenue by now!
Fan discord doesn’t have anything to do with expectations not being met … they’re being met. Fan discord still centers on Barnes, the hiring process and the fall out from the introductory press conference.
As long as Lyke can conduct a competent coaching search that doesn’t come across as deceiving the fan base, the next hire should be relatively safe. Some will want a big name but I think most of us understand that we’re going to have to take a chance on a less established coach.
I do agree that coaches may not want to come to Pitt but it’s for other reasons … the complete rebuild from the ground up, lack of recruiting base, money, and potential to win add up to a steep difficulty factor. A high difficulty factor may get you points in the Olympics but not in the coaching search world.
Pitt has delusional fans, just like most teams, but that will be low on the totem pole when looking at the other reasons Pitt is a difficult basketball job.
Firing Stallings after two years, with as poorly as these first two season went, will not dissuade many coaches … How hard it will be to actually succeed at Pitt will be the real hurdle.
I think they’ll go the assistant route and someone who doesn’t want to cut their teeth at a smaller school first. I don’t think any up and coming coaches from the non-P5 conferences will see Pitt as attractive. The established coaches who see Pitt as a destination will be retreads like Stallings with one more shot at glory … John Thompson III, Crean, Seth Greenberg … two of which have former ties to Pitt … which scares me a little.
I’m not saying he’ll cut a deal, but there are reasons for him to do so that Pitt could leverage.
do and why should I call a TO to tell them what they already know” as Stallings said. It’s to break the momentum of the other team and give my team a chance to regroup.
By not calling TOs, KS is basically saying “screw it”
We’re not going to win anyhow, I don’t want to be here and let’s just get it over with!!
Pitt being down and out has made me fairly disinterested in college basketball as a whole. Last year was my first year since college that I did not fill out a March Madness bracket.
Sadly, this year will be my first year since my college days that I will not attend a Pitt BB game.
No interest? Ask the BoT and Pitt administration…
This is the first season in years that games aren’t marked on my calendar. I watch pieces of most but I stopped watching full games somewhere in the non-con. I try but I’m not going to let Pitt basketball ruin my winter.
I was told by a person who works at the Peterson Center that our AD is no where to be seen at both mens and girls basketball games. Can someone who attends confirm this statement.
I truly think that Stallings will decide to take whatever the Pitt offer is to leave the program. He knows he is finished but again our AD must have someone else in mind before making a decision on Stallings. ( start making some phone calls).
Reporter: “Coach Stallings, how do you feel when people say you were the worst coach in the history of Pitt basketball?”
KS: “My Ferrari is double parked…”
Now or later? I agree that $2.5M amortized over a year probably won’t make much of an impact financially, especially when offset against declining attendance, however, it does give Pitt a year in which they can build a stronger legal case and try to find something to hold over his head. That’s the funny thing about skeletons in closets – it’s no terribly difficult to put them there if you don’t find any. Put another, far more crass way, it only costs a booster maybe $50K to get a cheerleader to say someone touched her inappropriately in a vulnerable situation. It doesn’t even have to be the coach – he just had to “know”. Stuff like that is a crapshoot, but it happens every day. It’s horrible, but it’s easy to make allegations and it’s expensive to defend against them. Some of it’s real, some of it isn’t, and sometimes it’s just easier to settle regardless.
I’ve always thought that if I knew even 10% of what conversations went on when the general public wasn’t around, my brain would probably melt. I know in my industry, I’ve heard conversations that would would certainly put things in a different public perspective. And so it goes with Pitt, Stallings, and the coaching dilemma therein. I don’t know what’s in the contract, I don’t know what handshake deals went down on the side, and I don’t know just how far a desperate booster might go to create some off-court controversy that might hasten Stallings departure. I just don’t know – none of us do. All I know is that even if Stallings is a complete idiot when it comes to contracts, his agent isn’t, and at the moment he holds more cards than some are giving him credit for.
