The LSU Tigers' firing Brian Kelly might save multiple head coaches in the Southeast. At least, that's what one Big Ten athletic director shared with CBS Sports' Brandon Marcello when asked if the Auburn Tigers and Florida State Seminoles would be gunshy about firing Hugh Freeze and Mike Norvell after LSU's major decision.
As the B1G AD said, the supply will outweigh the demand, hurting schools like Auburn and Florida State that aren't the flagship programs in their state.
"I feel like it shouldn't affect those decisions, but I think it will," a Big Ten athletics director told CBS Sports. "The demand for high-quality coaches that will provide hope to a fan base is greater than the supply as a result of all of the openings. I would want to know what my next step is before jumping in this pool."
Freeze's culture fit on the Plains, as an Oxford, Mississippi, native, may save him from being fired, explained another AD. Kelly, by contrast, was a northeasterner who many in Baton Rouge felt came off as an elitist.
"Some places may have a little bit more patience than others, but others, if they really feel like this is not the person for them, then they need to act," a power conference athletics director said. "That's a very unique local flavor type of thing."
An agent had the opposite feeling about the process. One of Marcello's sources on the representation side sounded skeptical about the aforementioned ADs' view on AU and FSU's impending decisions.
"It's fun to speculate about how industry moves impact other decisions, but at the end of the day, individual administrations make the best decision they can for the betterment of their institutions," a prominent agent told CBS Sports. "Administrations don't look at what is happening anywhere but in their stands and their bank statements."
We'll see if the administration side or the representation side of Marcello's pool of sources has a better pulse on this hiring cycle. Fans in the Sunshine and Yellowhammer States want change as soon as possible, but their program's brain trusts may not feel their immediate satisfaction is integral to the long-term health of their teams.