Analysis of Doeren's Contract

[James]

There has been a lot of discussion of how much a buy out of Doeren’s contract would be. I thought it would be helpful to look at the primary source material. Here is a link to Doeren’s contract.

Section XIII of the employment agreement governs termination without cause. Under the agreement, if NC State terminates Doeren without cause, NC State’s “sole financial obligation shall be limited to paying [Doeren] his Annual Salary at the time of termination multiplied by the number of full and partial contract years remaining in term of this Agreement, and, if applicable, any bonuses earned or accrued as of the effective date of termination.”

Some key points for understanding this clause:

(1) Doeren’s Annual Salary under the agreement is $840,000. (Doeren’s Supplemental and Bonus Compensation is separate and distinct from his Annual Salary, a defined term in the agreement.)

(2) Doeren’s contract expires on December 31, 2019. See page 1 of contract, at section I.A(1). His contract is automatically extended by one year if NC State wins eight games and two years if NC State wins ten or more games in a season. Id. (A threshold for an automatic extension set at eight games, particularly against the kind of non-conference competition NC State has played since Doeren came on board, speaks volumes as for the Administration’s dedication to winning.)

(3) After the game against UNC-Chapel Hill on Friday, Doeren will have three year and one month remaining on his contract.
Assuming Doeren has no bonuses coming to him under Section V, if Doeren were terminated without cause, he would have $2.59 million in Annual Salary coming to him (37 months left on the term of his contract times a prorated monthly salary of $70,000). Note that under Section XIII.B, Doeren is under an obligation to try to find new employment and that pay he receives from that employment is set off against NC State’s $2.59 million obligation.

It appears keeping Doeren an additional year would save us around $840,000. Of course, that assumes Doeren does not back his way into an eight win season next year, triggering an automatic extension.

It would never do so, but it would be interesting for the university to at least entertain terminating Doeren for cause. Doeren is contractually obligated to “[c]onduct recruiting activities, practices, game preparation, and coaching duties so as to develop and maintain a Football program of the highest quality and which is competitive within the ACC and the NCAA.” Section II.A(9). It would be difficult to argue this program is “of the highest quality” with a straight face. The position could be to go at him for termination for cause and use that as leverage to negotiate down the severance.

[McCallum]

$800,000 is not much money in regards to the size of the school, the fan base or to get further behind in a state that has seven division 1 football programs. Florida only has seven division 1 teams in a state with 2.3 times as many people as North Carolina, 4 teams in Tennessee(less population), 2 in SC (less population) 4 in Georgia (similar in population) and 3 in Va (less population). As the other schools increase in size (unc-Charlotte comes to mind) then your fan base outside of graduates decreases. Of course everyone loves a winner and State does not produce winners.

Every day you delay is another day you move behind, he should be released after the final game.

McCallum

[WolftownVA81]

I would say our mediocre results qualify as cause. If a coach can’t post a winning conference record he has failed.

[Adventuroo]

I have also read Doeren’s contract. There has been on limited times with the “W/L” record was used and the university refused to honor the contract. Can’t recall the incident, but the coach was in hot water for a number of off field issues. I THINK that they finally settled.

If NCSU invoked the “you did NOT win” tactic, I doubt we would ever get an good coach again….regardless of the coach. You interview and you hire and then you expect results. If NOT, then you either purge or ride it out.

There would be a covey of lawyers ready to take the case and represent Doeren. NOW, that assumes that he is not abusing his players in practice and there are no “serious personality” issues. All coaches have “personality” flaws….so the word SERIOUS is a hedge.

Interesting thought….Not a lawyer, never played one on TV, but I did stay at a lot of Holiday Inn Expresses and was on the speed dial of my corporate staff as I did a lot of property and used equipment sales and they totally reviewed ever little clause that I wanted to change in their “Boiler Plates”. The wording in Doeren’s contract is that….Boiler Plate.

Have you ever read the contract of a Corporate Executive….it does NOT say that the company must be profitable. It has as many incentives as Doeren’s does…..or how about a contract for a Hollywood star….it does not say that any movie that they star in MUST be profitable…..but there are reams of pages spelling out the formula for box office receipts, television, DVD, residuals, etc.

I think that the HRC protesters that are harrassing the Elctoral College Voters with tons of email, petitions, death threats, etc. have a better shot at changing the election that we would at NOT paying Doeren his buyout.

NOW, he can, as TOB did, negotiate changes. AD Yow saved up $1,000,000 in TOB’s contract.

IF she makes the call (and I have NO inside info as to whether she will….bit it seems to be moving HIGHER on the priority based on the “counsel” of some folks that pay to see their names on NCSU facilities….Athletic and Academic)…..I guess we wait and see.

[ryebread]

I actually think the mid-level people have some influence here in numbers. Right now anyone with LTRs is a captive audience. They’ll pay full price for tickets at whatever cost. As demand drops off, those same seats can be had for a fraction of the price. It’s not just that all tickets get sold, but it’s the average price they’re sold for.

If enough rank and file LTR walk, the AD would be foolish not to fire DD. It becomes not only about selling out this year but ensuing years. It is a lot easier to do when significant portions of the tickets are already “spoken for.”

Regardless, if (when) DD loses to UNC he is done. I looked back through 40 years of history before the season ever started. No NC State coach has ever been retained after pulling the “trifecta” twice (having a losing season while losing to both ECU and UNC). They can sometimes make it through one pass at that but only early in their tenures. DD got his mulligan in year one. Right now he’s almost as much of a dead man walking as MOC was before MAF did the deed.

I’ve got no insider information and don’t pretend to. I’ve thought this from the second I saw our schedule. I said before the ECU game that DD better treat it like it was his Super Bowk because winning was the only way he’d be back. Nothing has has happened that has changed my opinion.

Beat UNC or DD is done. The real people that matter won’t put up with this any more. If the AD doesn’t go along, she’ll be looking at early retirement.

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