Gus Malzahn's Contract Extension at Auburn Is Cost of Doing Business in SEC

When the news came across Monday night that Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn, fresh off of a 7-6 season and last-place finish in the SEC West, got a contract extension, you laughed.

Perhaps even hysterically.

After all, this was the team that was picked to win the SEC, was in many preseason playoff predictions and was loaded with talent. Instead of living up to those expectations, Malzahn's Tigers spent the postseason in-state, played in the Birmingham Bowl and earned Malzahn a spot on the hot seat.

Despite that hot seat, as James Crepea of AL.com notes, Malzahn signed his new deal on April 1 that pays him $4.725 million per year—up from the $4.35 million he would have earned in 2016 under the previous contract—and gives him an extra year through 2020. The built-in raises reduce, meaning he'll earn $500,000 more than previously scheduled over the next two years and $500,000 less in the next two.

That extra year that athletic director Jay Jacobs added to the end of the contract is the kicker, and would force Auburn to shell out an additional $2,237,500 in buyout money if he's let go prior to the end of the deal.

Daniel Shirey/Getty Images

This isn't a case of Jacobs making a crazy decision, not recognizing that the program has headed south in each year since the Tigers won the SEC and played for the national championship in 2013 or throwing money around like Johnny Manziel in a Las Vegas club.

This is just business as usual in the SEC.

From a financial standpoint during the duration of the previously scheduled contract, the difference is negligible. If Auburn struggles and Jacobs fires Malzahn within the next two years, the extra money on the front end of the contract is roughly the football equivalent of paying a parking ticket.

That extra year on the back end would force Auburn to pay an extra $2,237,500.

Michael Chang/Getty Images

Isn't that worth it, though?

Sure, that sounds like a lot of money to most people, but all Auburn is doing with Malzahn's extension is buying a bit of recruiting stability through public relations.

Being on the hook for just under $2.5 million a half-decade from now, knowing that SEC Network money—which helped increase the per team payout from $20.9 million to $31.2 million in 2015—will continue to roll in, is like planning five years in advance for a trip to the grocery store to pick up some milk and eggs. 

It's not a big deal.

Think about what just happened in Auburn over the weekend.

It was the annual recruiting extravaganza known as "Big Cat Weekend," when visitors from all over the country come around to enjoy a weekend on campus. Don't you think that the topic of Malzahn's job status came up quite a bit?

If it didn't, recruits aren't asking the right questions, and other coaches in the SEC aren't doing their jobs and using Malzahn's status on the hot seat against Auburn on the recruiting trail.

This extension combats that. At least, a little bit.

Year	Overall Record	SEC Record	SEC West Place
2013	12-2	7-1	1st
2014	8-5	4-4	T4th
2015	7-6	2-6	7th

Jacobs told reporters in Destin, Florida, when we were there last week for SEC spring meetings that he expected Malzahn to be around "a long, long time."

"He’s a brilliant offensive mind. Took us to two national championships—once as a coordinator, once as a head coach," Jacobs said (via Crepea). "There’s a bunch of schools in this league that would love to be in our position with a guy like him."

By adding another year to the contract, it ensures that—at least contractually—Malzahn is locked up for the duration of the college careers of the 2017 class.

As Dan Wolken of USA Today noted on Twitter, that matters:

Eyebrows were undoubtedly raised on Monday afternoon when news of Malzahn's extension broke following a season in which his program was considered one of the biggest letdowns in the country.

On paper, it doesn't make a lot of sense if you look solely at results.

But there's more to the business of coaching than basic win-loss records. Jacobs giving Malzahn an extension and restructuring his contract is simply the cost of business in the SEC.

Quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Statistics courtesy of cfbstats.com unless otherwise noted. Recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports.

Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and national college football video analyst for Bleacher Report, as well as a host on Bleacher Report Radio on SiriusXM 83. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.