Florida Gators' Urban Meyer Worth Every Penny

This week, Florida Head Coach Urban Meyer signed a six-year, $24 million contract.  He will be the highest paid coach in the SEC in 2009.  When Alabama lured Nick Saban out of the NFL with an enormous compensation package, the nation sighed in disbelief—aghast at the total package. 

Well, that’s the going rate for a sure thing these days.  And if a coaching hire reaches the lofty expectations of a perennial national title contender, it’s a good idea to make sure he’ll be sticking around.  $24 Million over six years for Meyer—worth every penny.

Meyer, Nick Saban, Pete Carroll, Mack Brown and Bob Stoops are worth their enormous compensation packages.  They have proved themselves at the highest level of the college game. 

The key is that each coach has been able to sustain the highest level of success over time—much more difficult with today’s scholarship limits than it was in the sixties and seventies.

These coaches have built programs that are constantly mentioned on ESPN Gameday.  They regularly appear in nationally-televised regular season games, BCS bowls (and payouts), resulting in constant positive exposure to their schools.

These are the elements that enable an elite program to manifest itself year after year—and it takes enormous financial risk by the schools to achieve this level.

Texas, Alabama, OU, and USC all had their down years and paid dearly from the pocket book to the court of fan-base opinion.   Notre Dame is going through it right now with Ty Willingham and now Charlie Weis—a coach in the same tax bracket as the aforementioned proven coaches, but has never come close to producing results commensurate with his compensation package.

If you’re a blue-chip recruit, how would it feel to have a national celebrity make a trip to your home, and try and sell you on playing for him?  Florida, Alabama, USC, Texas, and OU are all smart enough to understand that while the payout to the coach is enormous, it’s a mole on the ass of a cash cow, considering the revenue generated from the merchandising and BCS bowl payouts.

These coaches have reached a level best described as "selection" rather than "recruiting."  When an coach reaches this level, the AD has to do whatever it takes to keep him around–but with a keen eye toward any cracks in the armor (example: Bobby Bowden).

The programs that want to join the elite need to do their homework first, pay up, and hope like hell it works out.  Because if it doesn’t, they’ll be paying that coach mega-millions to do some kind of "consulting" while a new coach is hired following the same high risk/reward strategy.