How much is Jimbo Fisher's contract buyout? Amount explored if Aggies fire the HC in 2023
The Texas A&M Aggies are in a bit of a financial predicament, and it involves current head coach Jimbo Fisher. The coach hasn't been performing well ever since he arrived in College Station, and if the school wants to fire him, they'll have to pay an astronomical amount for the buyout. But how big of an amount are we talking about?
In this article, we’ll explore Jimbo Fisher’s contract buyout and go into detail about his head coaching contract for the Aggies, which he signed in 2017.
How much is Jimbo Fisher’s contract buyout?
According to The Big Lead, Fisher will be owed a total of $76.8 million if the Aggies decide to fire him. Texas A&M would also have to pay its newly hired coach on top of that money. Even for a school with an $18 billion endowment as of 2021, that's just way too much money to pay for someone who could potentially get fired.
The only way for the school to shake its way out of a massive buyout is to keep Jimbo Fisher on. That’s because the buyout amount gets smaller until 2030, and by then, it will have shrunk to a relatively small $9.95 million.
Why is Jimbo Fisher’s contract buyout so big?
It's all because of Fisher's 10-year, fully guaranteed extension which was offered to him in 2021, according to Yahoo. Texas A&M wanted to pay him that much because of the success he had in eight years of coaching Florida State before coming to College Station.
At the time of the signing of his original contract, Fisher had the largest fully guaranteed head coaching deal in college football history (via CBS Sports). The only thing comparable is Mel Tucker’s 10-year, $95 million contract, but an impending buyout with the disgraced MSU head coach will still be far more manageable than what Texas A&M has to deal with.
What’s the reason for Jimbo Fisher’s contract buyout?
Jimbo Fisher’s tenure at Texas A&M has been mediocre and he has led the Aggies to a 40-22 record overall. The only time the team was considered good was during the shortened 2020 season, when they were 9-1 and earned an Orange Bowl berth.
But every season besides that was worse. For one, the coach never led the team to a 10-win season. Last year, they were at the bottom of the SEC West with a 5-7 overall record and this season seems to be no different, as the Aggies are 1-1 as of this writing.