Gus Malzahn is out and Bryan Harsin is in, but at what cost to Auburn football? A really, really big one according to FanSided. When all is said and done, it’s costing the program roughly $73 million to execute the coaching change from Malzahn to Harsin.
Malzahn became the head coach of the Tigers in 2013, and in late 2017 he signed a seven-year extension worth $49 million. And now here we are, less than seven years later, with a new coach.
In addition to whatever his coaching contract at UCF is worth, Malzahn will also be raking in a $21.45 million buyout from Auburn. FanSided reports that throwing around these large sums of money is nothing new to the sport of college football:
"The clear problem here was signing Malzahn to the extension in the first place. That should have been a long-term move, but apparently, the program had the money to move on in search of more wins under Harsin.This is not something new to the sport. Long-term contracts are broken and supporters are willing to put up a ton of money to get a new coach in charge. The whole argument about colleges spending this money on fired coaches is a discussion for another time."
According to Tom Green on Twitter, the university is spending nearly $12 million to pay the new football coaching staff, but they also have to pay off Gus Malzahn and his former staff.
All in all, Auburn's coaching staff overhaul -- between the new contracts handed out and the buyouts owed to Gus Malzahn his former staff -- is running the program approximately $73,275,000 total (when accounting for the duration of the new deals)
— Tom Green (@Tomas_Verde) March 15, 2021
With the upcoming Football Performance Center at about $91 million in addition to all the coaching costs, Auburn football is going to be handing over a lot of money pretty soon.
Let’s hope the costs are justified by the end product.