Texas A&M Athletic Director Ross Bjork talks firing Jimbo Fisher, the $76M payout

Published: Nov 20, 2023 Duration: 00:04:32 Category: News & Politics

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Aggie fans buy tens of thousands of tickets each game and boosters pop millions into the program. They've been wondering why, why hasn't this worked? Texas A and M's athletic director has a vision of college football playoffs at Kyle Field when it expands to 12 teams starting next year. People have no idea the magnitude of that from restaurants to hotels but Ross Bjork knows really have no idea that all hinges on hiring a new coach. Roughly. How quickly do you need to make this decision? December 4th is a marker force. That's the day the transfer portal opens across the country. So I think we need clarity by December 3rd or fourth. Hanging over. The decision is $76 million in dead money. A phrase as ominous as it sounds. The magnitude of the finances are just unheard of. Right. Bjork knew firing coach Jimbo Fisher meant giving him all his guaranteed money this season is getting to, to the fan base if we did some rough math, but Fisher A and M spent well over $2.5 million per win and for the money they still owe him, you could run Melissa Roy City Crowley and Decatur, four towns in Texas for an entire year. There's a lot of other buyouts that of coaches, you know, got let go today would be more than what our buy out is, but those programs are winning. Ours didn't work. Something is not clicking. Told me he did not ask donors to pay off the old coach. It's really, really difficult to ask somebody to pay, buy out money. A and M will tap the nonprofit 12th Man Foundation to pay the initial 19 million that Fisher is due before January 12th. We found money that was already committed. That was, that was flexible money essentially in reserve accounts. As for the rest, the university is about to redo a sponsorship deal and we'll get a bump from switching TV rights to ABC. That new deal kicks in in the fall of 24 with, with SEC expansion coach Fisher's buy out, forced A and M to take a hard look at what it's spending. We're specifically, will you make those cuts? It's really in the, in the staffing of football. Our staff pool for the entire football program was over 13 million other programs in the SEC in the power five are in the 9 to 10.5 range. He told me other departments are safe. The cuts will be confined to football analysts, you know, recruiting positions, operational positions, those kind of things and the travel budget will take a hit too. Our program under coach Fisher was leaving on Thursday nights. That's added hotel rooms, that's added meals. Everybody else leaves on Friday for a road game. Another aspect of Fisher's deal A and M is on the hook. Even if he gets a new job, there's no stipulation to account for him earning money from another school. Would you ever give a fully guaranteed deal with no offset to me as we look forward, somebody has to earn that. Bjork says A and M will pay for performance through an incentive based contract if you're a host or you make the playoff. Here's a number, if you make the semifinals. Here's a number. How specifically do you define success for this next head coach? The expectation is we should be in the competition for a national championship. That should be the goal. Can we win it every year? No one can. But let's be in the conversation. And one thing about Aggie is if they believe in a plan and they believe in a vision and there's some excitement, they will help the program financially with so much riding on this hire. York is getting input from everywhere. We have two former players here at Texas A and M that are NFL head coaches, Archie Manning is a dear friend, Archie, what are Peyton and Eli, what do they think? But ultimately York's tenure and the Aggies future hinges on what happens now, Thanksgiving weekend. Let's see where we are, do we need to keep going because somebody's playing, but by December 3rd or fourth to me, we need clarity on who our next coach is. There's a lot to our conversation. We couldn't get to tonight, but keep an eye out tomorrow morning. The entire interview will be available on the W FAA youtube channel. Happy.

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