Let’s praise USC coaches for agreeing to pay cuts. But what about the pricey buyouts?

It’s admirable that USC and the university’s three highest-paid coaches — Will Muschamp (football), Frank Martin (men’s basketball) and Dawn Staley (women’s basketball) — have worked out an agreement for the trio to take 10% pay cuts during their upcoming seasons.

In fact it’s very admirable given that:

▪ USC will likely face some daunting budget challenges because of the coronavirus pandemic.

▪ All three coaches make seven-figure annual salaries — Muschamp was scheduled to make $4.4 million this year while Martin and Staley were set to receive $3.1 million and $1.7 million, respectively, for their 2020-21 basketball seasons.

So let’s make two things clear right away:

▪ What USC is asking Muschamp, Martin and Staley to do is not a trivial request.

▪ What the three coaches have agreed to do is not a trivial sacrifice.

But is there a better step that USC can take when it comes to paying Muschamp, Martin and Staley?

Is there a more meaningful one?

Yes, and here it is:

Get rid of the clauses in the contracts for Muschamp, Martin and Staley that will force USC to pay the coaches millions in buyout money if the university wants them to leave before their deals expire.

The landscape is littered with public universities that have forked out stacks of money to buy out coaches they wanted to go away — all so they could lavish millions more on new coaches.

Just look at Florida State, which scrambled to find $18 million to fire football coach Willie Taggart after the 2019 season — and will now pay new FSU head coach Mike Norvell $26.5 million over the next six years.

Or look at the University of Louisville, which is paying a $14 million buyout to former football head coach Bobby Petrino while giving another $3.25 million a year to his replacement, Scott Satterfield.

That’s stupid money to be paying coaches to not coach at those two schools. And, trust us, somewhere along the way the citizens of Florida and Kentucky will be the ones paying the price for such stupidity.

USC should do what it can now to avoid that.

According to figures provided by USC — and bravo to the athletics department for giving me the data so quickly — here are the current approximate buyout sums for Muschamp, Martin and Staley:

▪ Muschamp: roughly $15.3 million (if he’s let go after the 2020 season).

▪ Martin: just under $9.6 million

▪ Staley: just under $10.4 million.

In all three cases that’s an eye-watering amount of money.

So wouldn’t it be in the best interests of USC — and of South Carolinians, period — to address the prospect of paying crazy dollars to three coaches just to make them stop coaching here?

I’ll give you three answers to that question: yes, yes — and yes.

And USC should do it.

Now let’s immediately make four points:

1. Let’s not rule out the possibility that USC will actually do what I’m suggesting.

When I asked the athletics department if the contract buyouts for Muschamp, Martin and Staley could be revised or changed in the wake of COVID-19, I got the following identical response on each coach:

“The full details of (the) voluntary pay reduction are yet to be finalized.”

So let’s get this right: I’m not criticizing USC because it didn’t do something about the coaches’ buyouts — I’m just urging it to do something about them.

2. I have nothing against Muschamp.

After all, I strongly defended Muschamp when the hysterical braying donkeys in the Gamecock fan base were demanding the coach’s head after last season’s poor 4-8 record.

3. I have nothing against Martin.

After all, while I’ve pointed out that Martin has had a largely mediocre record as men’s basketball coach over the past three seasons, I’ve also noted that he has plenty of admiring supporters in this state.

4. I certainly have nothing against Staley.

After all, I’m the one who has called for Staley to be paid the same amount as Martin because she has accomplished far more than he has at USC; in fact Staley probably would have won her second national title as USC head coach if the pandemic hadn’t occurred.

All that said, however, COVID-19 has changed a lot of things.

And here’s one more change it should lead to: an end to high-swag contract buyouts for USC’s top coaches.

Opinion Editor Roger Brown can be reached at (803) 771-8464 or by email at rjbrown@thestate.com. You can follow him @RBrown_SCOpin.

This story was originally published May 26, 2020 at 12:01 PM.