Though Art Briles will not coach for Baylor again -- as it appears as of this moment -- the school and its former coach have not yet officially parted ways. There are details still to be ironed out. Forty million of them, to be exact.
Briles is still owed approximately $40 million on his eight-year contract (he signed a 10-year contract after leading the Bears to their first Big 12 championship in 2013) and, unless the school wants to fire him for cause and deal with the impending lawsuit, a settlement would have to be reached.
And it appears they’ve done just that.
Jason King of Bleacher Report reported Friday the two sides have come to an agreement.
Baylor has reached a contract settlement with former football coach Art Briles, sources tell B/R. Details unclear.
— Jason King (@JasonKingBR) June 17, 2016
Considering Baylor’s status as a private university and the clandestine nature in which it does business, it’s unclear at this time if we’ll ever know how much Baylor will pay Briles not to coach. Reports pegged the target number Baylor was hoping to pay around $20 million.
What remains to be seen is how Briles’s firing affects Baylor’s search for a new coach. The school and its supporters had the pedal pressed to the floor financially -- between Briles’s reported $5 million salary, commensurate pay for his staff (defensive coordinator Phil Bennett makes just shy of $1 million annually, per USA Today), the new stadium and other facility projects either recently completed or under construction. In addition to paying Briles to go away, Baylor will have to do the same to his staff this winter while also hiring a new coach and paying for his staff.
And while programs typically lean on their boosters to help finance much of a staff change, Baylor’s conversation of, “Hey, can you help us pay for a new staff to replace the historically popular coach we had to fire due to the extreme negligence and cold-hearted neglect we showed over the past few years?” may be a trickier one than usual.