A Muschamp buyout? SC Senate candidate Jaime Harrison jokes about helping with that
Jaime Harrison was not able to put much of a dent in Lindsey Graham’s election dominance, losing a bid for Graham’s U.S. senate seat in South Carolina y more than 10 points. But the Orangeburg Democrat was able to raise a staggering amount of money, $103 million as of Oct. 24, more than a week before the election.
And after watching his in-state Gamecocks football team get thrashed by Texas A&M on Saturday, he jokingly offered on social media Sunday to turn his fundraising acumen to make some change in Columbia.
“I’m so close to setting up a fundraising effort to buy out Muschamp’s contract! Jeez! Dude has got to go!” Harrison said via Twitter.
After a renegotiated contract following last season, Muschamp’s buyout would be $13.2 million if he were to be fired at the end of the season.
That’s 75% of the rest of his contract, which is set to play him $4.4 million the next few years. The school would only pay the difference between whatever he was making at a next job (or 75% of what his predecessor made) and $3.3 million.
That buyout, which was around $18 million at the end of last season, was a key factor in keeping him on after a 4-8 season in 2019.
South Carolina’s athletic department is facing a revenue shortfall of $58 million that put the school $44 million short of its projected expenses. It had quickly cut more than $6 million with pay cuts to top coaches as well as a set of furloughs, but chances are high that the department will need a loan of sorts just to operate.
In short, paying a coach multiple millions of dollars not to coach, plus paying off a staff with up to $4 million in 2021 contracts and hiring a new staff with be a tall task.
The Gamecocks are currently 2-4 and coming off a pair of disheartening blowouts. Muschamp’s 22 wins in his first three years were the most in school history for a coach’s first three seasons, but he’s 6-12 since and fell below .500 for his USC tenure with Saturday’s loss.
The Gamecocks travel to Ole Miss next weekend.
This story was originally published November 8, 2020 at 11:13 AM.
