Established college football coaches often don’t go gently into the good night of dismissal. Not only have the big boys crossed the $2 million-a-season salary threshold, but their attorneys have learned how to structure their contracts so the university must pay through the roof if fickle boosters try running them off campus.
If he’s fired, for example, Tommy Tuberville, who could lecture on the sins of booster involvement, would collect $7 million from Auburn.
Phillip Fulmer would get $4.325 million from Tennessee if the Vols send him packing.
Mack Brown would be due $3.5 million from Texas.
But the clear winner if the bottom falls out, according to ESPN.com’s review of the contracts of the head coaches at most of the top public football-playing schools in the Top 25 this year, is Frank Beamer; he would be owed $8.032 million if Virginia Tech no longer wants his services
