I’m quite certain that the Wake Forest football coach isn’t the only one who finds the timing curious. To say the least.
In mid-April, it was confirmed that Dave Clawson would be taking a 10% cut in his pay. The move by the Wake Forest football head coach came amidst the coronavirus pandemic as schools across the country are tightening their financial belts.
Which brings us to today’s development.
As noted by our colleagues at CollegeBasketballTalk, Wake Forest Saturday morning fired its head men’s basketball coach, Danny Manning. Given the fact that the dismissal comes nearly a month and a half after the sports world was shut down, this certainly qualifies as a surprise.
The most surprising aspect, though? Manning’s contract calls for a buyout in the neighborhood of $15 million if he’s fired without cause. Which he was.
So, less than two weeks ago, Clawson voluntarily forfeited somewhere around $220,000 (his 2019 compensation was $2.189 million) to help out what could soon be a cash-strapped athletic department. Then, Wake Forest voluntarily opts to fire Manning and pay him $15 million in the form of a buyout.
Regardless from where the money for that eight-figure sum is coming, the optics on this one aren’t good. At all.