Eric Hyman: ‘I had nothing to do’ with giving Kevin Sumlin guaranteed $30 million contract

“The Contract” was signed on his watch, so “it’s his fault.”

No contract in college football these days has generated as much scrutiny and criticism as the one handed to Kevin Sumlin when Eric Hyman was Texas A&M’s athletic director.

In December 2013, Sumlin signed a six-year, $30-million extension. Guaranteed.

Texas A&M squeaked past Arkansas in overtime this past Saturday, but it Sumlin has been coaching for his job since a board member called for him to be fired after the Aggies’ embarrassing 44-43 loss to UCLA in the season opener.

Was Sumlin’s contract Hyman’s decision?

“No. I had nothing to do with it,” Hyman said recently near his home in Fort Worth. Hyman was the AD at South Carolina before going to A&M.

“I have done this job a long time and I don’t blame Kevin Sumlin. If someone is going to give you $5 million a year for six years, it would have been stupid of him to turn it down,” Hyman said. “But the contract was given to me, and it was ‘This is what we are going to do.’ I looked at myself and I was stunned.

“I had no say so over it. I’ve been doing this job for a long time. I had worked with Steve Spurrier for years, and he was paid a heck of a lot less than Coach Sumlin. And he won national championships after conference championships. And then you are making this commitment to a person, and again I don’t blame Kevin, that’s never won a conference championship.

“When the original contract was given to me, if Kevin were to leave the next day there was no buyout provision.”

Is this a case of an ex-athletic director covering his behind with revisionist history? On this one, no.

Given Hyman’s history of how he handled coaches and costs plus A&M’s history of an “active board,” his explanation is plausible.

But why would A&M give Sumlin such a deal when there was no need?

“Because people didn’t know what they were doing,” Hyman said. “I learned this valuable lesson when I was at VMI (Virginia Military Institute), what the 12th Man Foundation is, or the Frog Club, or whatever.

“I learned this as a young, 33-year-old athletic director: VMI people are brilliant. They come to a meeting in a three-piece suit and they leave their brains at home. There are some schools that are more than that; A&M, to a certain extent, had more people like that. They would say things and do things that are mind-boggling.”

Throughout his career, Hyman was close to the vest in his dealings with the media, so it’s equally mind-boggling for him to say this on the record.

He is 66, and essentially retired. The former AD at VMI, Miami (Ohio), TCU, South Carolina and Texas A&M is a bit looser with his thoughts.

What he said about A&M, where he was the AD from 2012 to 2016, is troubling. Someone within that power structure should at least acknowledge they are part of the problem.

Hyman didn’t necessarily always make people happy in his stops at TCU or South Carolina, but the results speak for themselves. Both athletic departments improved dramatically after his arrival, including A&M’s.

This story was originally published September 25, 2017 at 10:38 AM.