Records: Ishbia, St. Andre paying $24 million towards Tucker's $95 million salary

Submitted by UNCWolverine on December 22nd, 2022 at 11:33 AM

Per the Freep...

"Mat Ishbia and Steve St. Andre will donate a combined $24 million towards the salary of Mel Tucker over the next decade, according to records released after a Detroit Free Press lawsuit. The donations do not specify Tucker's name, but St. Andre's gift says he would like it to be used for the "recruitment and retention for the MSU Men's Intercollegiate Football Team."

That leaves the school on the hook for the other $71 million of Tucker's 10-year, $95 million salary."

MSU's misinformation and/or trying to keep the details of this contract going public smells a lot like regret from day 1. Here's to hoping he sticks around for the entirey of this contract.

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mgoblue_in_bay

December 22nd, 2022 at 4:31 PM ^

Makes me wonder - what are off-season expectations for a coach.  Sure, they probably have to work for the benefit of the team, but they can't have practices or contact with the players most of the time right?

Wondering if a coach could spend much of the off-season doing recruiting and planning activities, physically elsewhere.

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chuck bass

December 22nd, 2022 at 11:41 AM ^

St. Andre does not have to put up his additional $5 million, which would leave the university on the hook for $76 million total.

While the gift agreement between Ishbia and MSU has no outs, the gift agreement between St. Andre and MSU says he can, after the first $6 million payment, pull the remainder of the gift at "any time and for any reason."

Joined: 07/09/2017

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Baldbill

December 22nd, 2022 at 11:44 AM ^

Well, Ishiba looks to have very deep pockets. I had to look him up. I had not heard of him.

St. Andre while a grad of MSU, he got a Masters from Michigan (Ross Business School)

 

 

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WayOfTheRoad

December 22nd, 2022 at 11:53 AM ^

$71 Million (at minimum) no matter what happens? That's a really, really good contract for a guy with exactly one good year ever at that point and a really, really, really bad one for the entity paying it.

That is unless he becomes a consistent 10+ games a year winner. If he ends the decade as the greatest coach in MSU history it will have been worth it. Anything less and they got taken behind the woodshed alright...

Joined: 06/26/2017

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jmblue

December 22nd, 2022 at 12:03 PM ^

That is unless he becomes a consistent 10+ games a year winner. If he ends the decade as the greatest coach in MSU history it will have been worth it.

If he becomes a big winner, his agent will demand a renegotiation.  This isn't like a pro athlete's contract where he's locked in.  He can always demand a raise.  

Basically, the $95 million is his floor and he can only make more.  A high floor for a guy with one career winning season.

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Grampy

December 22nd, 2022 at 11:57 AM ^

Lost in the ongoing discussion of Mel's contract is the inherent difficulty MSU faces as they (on a near-psychotic basis) try to compete with the only yardstick that matter to them.  They've had good coaches in the past, but Nick Saban left because he knew there was a ceiling that Michigan placed on his recruiting that interfered with his ambitions and Dantonio's concoction of sketchy recruiting and building a hateful and no-holds-barred environment can't be successful in the long run and he burnt out (not without gouging one last bit of filthy lucre out of the hand that fed him).  MSU both hired Mel and gave him a ludacris contract extension in a desperate lunge at the brass ring.  This effort, like the others before it is doomed to long term failure because of Michigan's status as a premier destination for athletes.  Of the pool of available coaches who, by sheer force of effort and charisma, can built a long-term successful program at MSU are going to take the job there with it's decades of baggage and UM just 60 miles away?  I'm thinking that is a small pool in the first place and the inherent competitiveness of the candidates will eliminate MSU from any long term commitment.  Mel Tucker is who they get and the cost will always be higher than what the market dictates.

It's great to be a Michigan Wolverine, and appreciate Harbaugh while we have him.

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kentzebra

December 22nd, 2022 at 2:08 PM ^

i ran into dantonio at a wedding a couple months ago and i went up and talked to him.  he was very civil even though i told him i was a Michigan guy.  i asked if he had an office in the athletic building and he said no, but he did keep in touch with the program quite a bit from his home office.  he did say he was still being "taken care of" by MSU.  My slappie spartan friends there were too afraid to go talk with him.

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1408

December 22nd, 2022 at 1:48 PM ^

This is mostly nonsense.  MSU and UM can both be very successful at the same time, it is possible.  Proximity has nothing to do with it.  In fact, MSU has been better than UM for certain periods of time over the years.  

We can hate him all we want but Dantonio saw an angle as being the chippy, scrappy brawler going up against the more pedigreed and refined softie (at the time).  That was very attractive to a lot of recruits.  They were better than us for quite a while.

What hurts MSU more than anything else is that it is a basketball school.  Saban didn't leave because of U of M's proximity, let's be serious.

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tkokena1

December 22nd, 2022 at 2:22 PM ^

While I agree that both can be successful there are some factors that helped Dantonio build his program that I don't think Tucker (or any near term MSU coach) can rely on.

The biggest one (that I think matters the most) is that Michigan had Rich Rod & Hoke running their program for 7 years of the Dantonio era. In those 7 years, Dantonio went 6-1 against Michigan. In his games against Carr & Harbaugh, Dantonio went 2-4 and the last 2 years against Harbaugh, MSU was outscored 65 - 17. As soon as Harbaugh began at Michigan, the programs were immediately equal even though Dantonio had owned the rivalry (and the Big Ten outside of OSU) for 5ish years. 

Dantonio was a good coach who was the perfect fit at MSU. Whether Tucker is a good coach or not, I don't think he will reach the heights of Dantonio for the simple fact that our program is no longer a tire fire. 

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