South Carolina decided to fire Will Muschamp in November after he had served five seasons as their head coach. Their relationship had taken a rather large tumble since Muschamp signed his lucrative extension in 2019. Many experts found them giving him this extension a little weird, to begin with, considering his success. He was coming off a mediocre 7 and 6 campaign that didn’t inspire too much confidence within their fanbase. The next subpar two seasons didn’t do anything to gain it back.
South Carolina managed to only win a measly six games over the past two years. It made firing Muschamp an easy decision for the university. But this choice does come with some rather severe financial consequences. Buyouts involving premier SEC schools and their coaches are never cheap, especially when it’s only two years into a new extension.
Muschamp isn’t a stranger to these buyouts as he had already been fired from Florida in 2014. For some reason, the Gamecocks thought it would be a good idea to hire him only two years later after a stint as Auburn’s defensive coordinator. It seems like the team and Muschamp were always headed down this road.
Before we dive into how much money South Carolina will lose, let’s look at Muschamp’s contract extension details to provide some context. It’ll make understanding the buyout numbers discussed later on a bit easier to comprehend.
Will Muschamp’s Contract Details
Muschamp’s contract isn’t overly difficult to understand. South Carolina followed the standard head coaching contract blueprint of separating guaranteed compensation into two parts. He would be entitled to both a base salary and additional outside compensation.
The base salary covers what he does on the field, while the additional income comes from sponsorships and TV/radio appearances. One interesting fact about these figures is Muschamp’s base salary was never scheduled to increase during the contract. Meanwhile, his outside compensation rose by $200,000 each year.
Total Guaranteed Compensation
Base Salary:
- $1,100,000 (every year)
Outside Compensation:
- 2019-2020: $3,300,000
- 2020-2021: $3,500,000
- 2021-2022: $3,700,000
- 2022-2023: $3,900,000
- 2023-2024: $4,100,000
- 2024-2025: $4,300,000
Total Compensation:
- 2019-2020: $4,400,000
- 2020-2021: $4,600,000
- 2021-2022: $4,800,000
- 2022-2023: $5,000,000
- 2023-2024: $5,200,000
- 2024-2025: $5,400,000
Since Muschamp got fully compensated for the first two seasons under his extension, the buyout will only consider the leftover four seasons. This action leaves $20,400,000 of guaranteed money in limbo after he got fired. It’s quite a nice sum of cash that I doubt anyone would complain about receiving when getting relieved of your duties.
But it’s essential to note Muschamp won’t receive the entirety of this sum. His contract states specific details about how much money he’s owed when being fired during particular years. It’s time to see the exact figures South Carolina be sending their embattled former head coach.
How Much will Muschamp’s Buyout Cost?
Muschamp’s contract states he’s entitled to the remaining 75% of his base salary and outside compensation totals. As I stated earlier, this total ends up being a whopping $20,400,000 and gets decreased to a healthy $15,300,000.
There were a few reports Muschamp signed an agreement to lessen this buyout for more assistant coach money. It would’ve been around $13,200,000 rather than $15,300,000, but it seems he never signed. As a result, Muschamp will receive this nice chunk of change in equal monthly installments. These payments will continue until the end of 2024, when his contract would’ve ended.
It’s hard to imagine this outcome was what South Carolina envisioned when giving him this large extension back in 2019: a total of six wins and having to pay a buyout worth $15,300,000. It speaks to how important making the right call about a head coach is for these premier College Football schools. Hopefully, their new coach, Shane Beamer, can help revitalize this storied program.