Charlie Weis: Being Paid Not To Coach – by Two Different Universities
(from attorney Robert Romano at www.romanoonsports.com)
Special to GreensboroSports.com….
The first college football coach to be fired in 2014 comes early this year as Kansas fired its head coach, Charlie Weis, just four games into the season.
Coach Weis posted a 6-22 career record with the Kansas Jayhawks, including a 1-18 record in Big 12 play. The Jayhawks posted two wins this season over Southeast Missouri State and Central Michigan, but losses to Duke University and the University of Texas sealed his fate.
But the firing of Coach Weis does come with additional cost to the University and the students of KU. See Coach Weis is in the third year of a five-year contract, and like most coaching contracts – the University is obligated to pay him the balance of monies owed. Therefore, Coach Weis, whose contract calls for him to received approximately $2.5 million a year, will receive the full balance owed to him of approximately $7 million dollars. Yes, this money to pay Coach Weis for doing absolutely nothing for the next two and a half years, will be paid to him by a public university. Think about this, instead of that $7 million dollars being reinvested into the University for things like books, scholarships, dorms, professor salaries, and such, it will instead be paid to Coach Weis while he sits at home. What makes this even more ridiculous is that he will also be paid under the terms of the contract he had with Notre Dame that he signed back in 2005. Per that contract, Coach Weis will be paid approximately $3 to $4 million dollars a year through the 2015 season. (Although this amount is mitigated by the KU contract.)
But who is to blame? You cannot blame Coach Weis because I assume he wants to earn his money by coaching the team. You cannot blame the football program and players because you have to assume that they were all playing their best.
The blame lies with the University’s administration that hired the coach and allowed for the school to enter into such terms. See, the administration was blinded by Coach Weis’s resume – for what he had done previously with other teams. Coach Weis first gained acclaim as an offensive coordinator in the NFL, posting successful stints with the Patriots and the Jets. He was then hired as Notre Dame’s head coach prior to the 2005 season where he had initial success. So KU decided to pay him based upon the success he had with these teams, not for any success that he brought to KU. And now because of this, current KU students will be cheated out of $7 million dollars that could of benefited their educational experience.