Coaching Movement and Buyout Clauses

As I periodically checked my web browser this morning at work to keep an eye on the reality show-like drama involving Nick Saban, the Miami Dolphins, and the University of Alabama, I was struck by the importance of well-written buyout clauses in coaches' contracts. It would seem to me that if one aspires to be a coaches' agent in intercollegiate or professional sports, they should take an extra few semesters worth of contract law while in law school, with much of that work focused exclusively on writing solid buyout clauses. While I'm of course being a bit facetious here, it is somewhat mind-boggling how few coaches' contracts actually run their full course and how many are terminated by either the quick-triggered administrator, eager to replace a coach at the first sign of trouble (see Maturi, Joel, athletic director at the University of Minnesota, who last week fired Glen Mason, the school's football coach, who had won at least six games in seven of the past eight seasons, a feat thought by many to be nearly impossible at a school that had only won 6+ games in six of the previous 21 seasons), or the coach with the wandering eye, always looking to leave for greener pastures, particularly when green is the color on small, rectangular pieces of currency (see Saban, Nick).

While most of these buyout clauses seem to work relatively seemlessly, we do find the occassional snafu, such as the Jim O'Brien/Ohio State basketball case from recent memory. To all of you aspiring coaches' agents out there, please pay attention extra during lecture in contract law class and spend a little extra time perfecting those buyout clauses.

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