Dantonio's 4.3M bonus was a deal!
If MSU would have fired him without cause it would have cost them $7M.
Fickell buyout is only $2M. (Not in chart below).
FYI, Check out this chart on coaches and staff salaries
Dantonio salary was $4.399M, only 24th highest! / Asst total pool $4.9M
if fired MSU would have owed him $7M
Fickell current salary 2.3M, 63rd / Asst $2.71M
Harbaugh $7.5M, 3rd / Asst $6M
Brohm (PU) $6.6M, 8th / Asst.$3.535M
Franklin (PSU) $5.65, 11th / Asst ?
Fitzgerald (NW) $5.145M, 12th / Asst ?
Frost (NE) $5M, 14th / Asst $4.465M
Day (OSU) $4.5M, 22nd / Asst $7.245M
https://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/salaries/
school buyout listed in chart above is to the coach if fired without cause
(buyouts for coach to leave not listed)
February 7th, 2020 at 10:29 AM ^
Let me speak for the board. No one cares.
February 7th, 2020 at 11:22 AM ^
THANK YOU!
February 7th, 2020 at 1:17 PM ^
This is relevant if you wanted to know why not sooner. Did they miss a window of opportunity between buyout and bonus? It looks like they will save a few million and lose a season (that would have been lost anyway?). Timing is way out the ordinary.
February 7th, 2020 at 2:02 PM ^
The most successful coach they've ever had was never going to be fired. This is a non issue. The issue was whether he should have worked out an exit plan while still receiving his (lifetime achievement award) bonus so they weren't left with their pants down.
February 7th, 2020 at 10:30 AM ^
this is a joke right?
February 7th, 2020 at 10:35 AM ^
It seems the Fickell to MSU train has lost a lot of steam.
February 7th, 2020 at 11:02 AM ^
I heard some sparties talking like Tom Allen was a serious option from Indiana.
I think they're dreaming but can you imagine a more hateful, perfect match for them?
February 7th, 2020 at 11:27 AM ^
Indiana just gave Allen a seven year extension in December, and the buyout through this year is $2M. There's no way.
February 7th, 2020 at 12:04 PM ^
Funny how people were so confident it was a done deal, within hours of Dantonio's retirement. That was putting a lot of faith in this guy.
February 7th, 2020 at 12:10 PM ^
Lol who is that?
February 7th, 2020 at 12:17 PM ^
That’s Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets, and Kermit the Frog. Compared with many of the other majors Moo U is known for (hotel management, grass (no, not that grass) growing, livestock management), puppetry is one of the more challenging academic undertakings on campus.
The other guy is Beekman, their current AD. Many Sparties consider him to be a relatively powerless fellow.
February 7th, 2020 at 12:57 PM ^
He was just one Engler's brilliant moves to not address any of the issues---and a nod that Izzo and Dantonio would be actually the ones running the Atheletic Department.
February 7th, 2020 at 2:24 PM ^
I would have just gone with, “That’s Jim Henson with two puppets.”
February 7th, 2020 at 12:32 PM ^
Michigan State is hilarious.
February 7th, 2020 at 12:24 PM ^
I think a lot of MSU fans ignored the fact that Luke Fickell really doesn't like playing against OSU, and having to do so every year would probably wear him down. And he's not dumb; go to MSU and lose 5-6 games a year as they pull themselves out of a crater isn't going to make him more appealing to ND or OSU if those spots open up. But if he hangs around at Cincy and keeps winning, that leaves options open.
February 7th, 2020 at 1:10 PM ^
Not to mention a point that I think is getting missed by some re: Fickell... Let's say Ryan Day kills it again the next two years, especially on offense. Does anyone think that an NFL team wouldn't come sniffing at him? If I'm Fickell, I can stay at Cincy, build a better resume, and within two years, I might have my CHOICE of Notre Dame or Ohio St.
February 7th, 2020 at 10:39 AM ^
Without cause?
February 7th, 2020 at 11:05 AM ^
That's what I was thinking. With the Blackwell allegations, they easily had cause.
February 7th, 2020 at 11:55 AM ^
I'm of the mindset that sucking ass at your job should be considered cause to be fired.
February 7th, 2020 at 1:10 PM ^
I briefly considered this-briefly. But then the thought "Hmm. How many (more) MSU skeletons could Dantonio pull out of the closet???" Oh the conundrum! It's likely that 4+ million was in fact a "deal".
February 7th, 2020 at 10:46 AM ^
How much do they owe him if they fire him for cause of being a scumbag?
February 7th, 2020 at 12:14 PM ^
He just told you. If you are MSU’s coach, scumbag is a requirement, not a fireable offense, that’ll be $7M.
February 7th, 2020 at 10:49 AM ^
Brohm is the obvious outlier in the top 10. All that money and they can't build a real stadium and medical facilities.
February 7th, 2020 at 12:42 PM ^
Maybe you’re looking at it backwards. They can’t build them because they pay him too much.
February 7th, 2020 at 10:49 AM ^
MSU could have fired him right after the deposition and argued they had cause. Lose face, but save money.
February 7th, 2020 at 12:39 PM ^
And what do they care about saving money? It's our state taxes that keep supporting their mistakes, their rape settlements. I don't know what the answer is, but should the state keep bailing them out? Tuition, employee salaries shouldn't be affected either. Uggghhh public higher education.
February 7th, 2020 at 10:50 AM ^
Is there a clause about how much they had to pay him if he was in Red Lock status?
February 7th, 2020 at 10:50 AM ^
On the subject of their coaching search, I was someone who thought their “insiders” like Comparoni knew what they were talking about when they said the Fickell deal was done. That turned out not to be the case.
From reading things here and there, my assessment is as follows. Dantonio dragged his feet in an attempt to get Tressell hired. Sounds like the Board of Trustees said no way. His next plan was to put the full court press on his buddy Fickell. Some claim they had a handshake deal which is where the insiders got their confidence from. Now it sounds like the Board wants to take their time and conduct many interviews. Timing is probably better for Fickell to wait a couple weeks after signing day anyway, so he looks like less of a snake leaving his new class in the dust. I think Dantonio will push hard for him to be the choice, but who knows if the Board will agree. Assuming they decide on him, he still has to accept, and that’s not a guarantee. He’s probably the most likely candidate but it wasn’t a done deal like their people claimed.
February 7th, 2020 at 11:07 AM ^
In the future don't listen to Jim Comparoni and your life will be much better off for it.
February 7th, 2020 at 11:11 AM ^
Whenever I hear Comparoni on the radio, he sounds like a used car salesman. Never listen to that idiot.
One day I got into the car and that Huge Show was on the radio. Comparoni was coming on next. In true RCMB fashion, he spun this fake narrative about how the conference is out to get them by favoring us and OSU. Mind you, we had just played consecutive games in their football stadium.
February 7th, 2020 at 11:20 AM ^
Comp is the worst. He’s annoying and has a total boner for UM like most of their fan base. But evidently he doesn’t throw things against the wall so when he reported it was done, I believed that. Now they say he is just walking back the timeline because the Board of trustees wanted to slow the process down. Who knows.
February 7th, 2020 at 12:33 PM ^
You must think Fickell is a complete idiot if you think he might jump to MSU. At Cincinnati he can win 10-11 games per year while he waits for a better job. In the B1G East he would be lucky if he won 8 games a year. They just followed a bad recruiting class with a horrible recruiting class at a time when they are facing huge losses at QB, WR, DL and LB. Their OL continues to be a disaster.
Add to that the school's reputation and the possibility that they will face NCAA sanctions and the only possible reason to take the MSU job would be if you wanted an immediate higher salary and didn't plan to coach more than 3 years, which is how long he would last before being fired.
February 7th, 2020 at 11:57 AM ^
I remember back in the Hoke days, he advocated for the MSU defense to hit Gardner in the knees whenever he ran and basically called for an intentional injury to Devin. He caught some flack and had to do public backtracking. He's a douche.
February 7th, 2020 at 3:26 PM ^
For a while, Comparoni was always walking back some comment. He had to walk back a comment about Terry Richardson at one point when he said he was going to fake an injury at a camp.
February 7th, 2020 at 12:09 PM ^
The thing to keep in mind about "insiders" is that they're not necessarily in a position to actually know what's happening. Who are the guys here who actually do? Luke Fickell. Even the MSU AD is less likely to know--at least until Fickell (or whoever they end up hiring) actually signs a contract.
Remember 2011 when the normally reliable Adam Schefter said that Harbaugh was coming to Michigan? He had a source who was very clearly wrong (because Harbaugh wound up coaching the 49ers).
I assume the situation here is that Fickell talked with MSU, was genuinely interested but backed off when he talked to other people he knew. (Jim Tressell? Urban Meyer? I can't imagine either of those guys would think it's a good idea for him to go to MSU right now.)
February 7th, 2020 at 11:24 AM ^
This kind of like saying "wow getting shot in the head was a nice way to go because I'm a heavy smoker and may have gotten cancer." You're creating a big of a false choice by calling this a deal - it wasn't the bonus or his buyout.
Michigan State wasn't going to fire Dantonio without cause. Make no mistake, Dantonio had free reign to coach at MSU until he walked away or died. Dantonio's longevity bonus was just part of the value-add of his original contract, and once it got to February 2020, they probably expected him to coach their team in 2020.
February 7th, 2020 at 11:29 AM ^
We don't think he was fired?
He was entitled to that bonus and the buyout if he was fired without cause. This just looks like he was given two choices; step down immediately or go through the mess that would come along with being fired for cause.
Dantonio's success in delaying his deposition was worth more than anyone thought at the time.
February 7th, 2020 at 11:30 AM ^
Agree with the good Dr. Toboggan. Staee was never going to fire Mork. He could coach as long as he wants. Which makes the timing of his announcement very odd. If Dantini went to the MSU AD back in early December and said he wanted to retire but wasn’t leaving without his bonus, I am sure MSU would have cut him a check and wished him well. Hopefully Fickell sees that MSU is a tire fire that is only going to get worse and stays in Cincinnati.
February 7th, 2020 at 12:38 PM ^
His timing really screws MSU. The only thing that makes any sense to me is the suggestion that he did it so that MSU wouldn't have any option other than to make Tressel the interim coach.
February 7th, 2020 at 11:32 AM ^
What stands out to me is the ratio of HC/Asst salaries and osu being the only one where asst make more.
February 7th, 2020 at 11:38 AM ^
How much does it cost the EL DPW to retrieve and dispose of an incinerated sofa?
February 7th, 2020 at 11:40 AM ^
Very smart on them. Day is a first time head coach, completely unproven before taking over - why pay him like a Harbaugh/Kelly/Franklin/etc? Also, he's a young coach, so make sure you can afford the very best support staff to help him get started.
February 7th, 2020 at 2:09 PM ^
I don't think it was really a plan by OSU. Meyer got paid a lot more than Day. There was no reason to pay Day that much. OSU already had the highest pay in the Big Ten for assistants. It was easy to bump it up a little more to add who Day wanted.
February 7th, 2020 at 11:43 AM ^
Wow, the Big Ten is not getting it's return on investment in football coaches other than OSU.
February 7th, 2020 at 11:44 AM ^
Arby's - two fish sandwiches is a DEAL!
February 7th, 2020 at 12:12 PM ^
Fire him with cause and give him nothing.
February 7th, 2020 at 12:23 PM ^
I would still like to know why it is that everybody thinks Fickell is coming to this job.
As I said elsewhere, he really has no reason to come here. Sparty's under investigation (I hear rumblings that Michigan's AG is looking into the BBall program as well). You have AT LEAST two years of an offense that will be thin at best (Rumor is Dantonio's timing cost them at least one good player on signing day).
Fickell is doing far better at Cincy; if he came to MSU he'd be contending with Michigan, OSU, Penn State, and that's in our division alone; Wisconsin holds its own against Sparty quite well now, and I'll bet Minnesota will, too. He doesn't have the advantage Dantonio did of a down Michigan or a Penn State going through legislative turmoil for recruiting. He inherited a decent team at Cincinnati (No, Tommy Tuberville wasn't elite, but he was on the high side of mediocre on a consistent level, save for his last season). At best, Fickell would probably resemble Scott Frost at Nebraska rather than Dantonio. What on earth would make him even consider East Lansing?
February 7th, 2020 at 12:36 PM ^
I don't think everyone does, just a couple of MSU homers (and some posters who took them at face value).
February 7th, 2020 at 1:07 PM ^
Your “rumblings” are an actual news story that’s in the public and “rumor” is actually the truth, and is out in the open and straight from the kid’s mouth. All of that is to say, these things are 100% consumable by LF in his decision making. He doesn’t have to guess about that. I guess I’d be surprised if he digested everything he could know about MSU right now and concluded that it was a good idea to take that job, but stranger things have indeed happened.
February 7th, 2020 at 12:38 PM ^
Does anyone think it has truly set in with MSU fans? They have to know their football program is going back the shitter where it was for decades prior to Dantonio's tenure.