Paying $8MM after this season is a testament to the screwed up world of college football. It's absolutely crazy that any school will be a party to a contract that won't allow termination of a coach for cause (without any future payments) for lack of winning, but I guess that's the stupid, unconscionable college football world in which we now live.
Very true. The excuse thrown out is that a coach without a big buyout will suffer on the recruiting trail. Sounds to me like the agents have all the power, somehow. I don't buy it and the salaries are ridiculous. I am increasingly in the same boat as you. I watch much less football than I used to, and it gets less interesting all the time.
Paying a coach a huge buyout for recruiting reasons is just another way of saying "win at all cost".
The root cause IMO is fans that tie too much of their happiness to how a sports team is doing, and so are willing to pay almost anything for winning. I think it says something about where our culture as a nation is going, and not anything good either. Just my 2 cents.