Auburn Spent $100 MILLION Just To Still Lose To Alabama

I've talked before about the magnificent finesse job Gus Malzahn pulled off when he had his contract terminated by Auburn University, in which he received his full $21 million buyout from the school even though he got another job almost right away. But that's not even the half of what Auburn's coaching change ended up costing.

All told, the school spent more than $70 million to move on from Malzahn and hire Bryan Harsin away from Boise State.

AL.com — Now, more than three months after Auburn hired Bryan Harsin as Malzahn’s replacement and more than two months after his inaugural staff was completed, we can put a price tag on what it takes to overhaul a coaching staff and stay competitive in the most cutthroat conference in college football. According to documents obtained by AL.com through multiple public records requests, Auburn’s decision to make a coaching change will cost more than $73 million when accounting for the full value of the new staff’s contracts and the buyouts due to Malzahn and his former assistants.

There's no such thing as a cheap coaching change anymore. If you're truly strapped for cash, the best you can hope for is what Tennessee did in inviting an NCAA investigation upon itself to avoid paying a buyout. But SEVENTY-THREE MILLION DOLLARS?! Even in the world of coaching salaries and buyouts today, if you're paying that amount for a new coaching staff, it better be the best of the best.

And we don't really know yet how good Harsin can be in the SEC and whether or not this move will turn out to be worth it for the Tigers, but it's not the kind of name people expect for that kind of price tag. Anything more than $50 million should get you a sitting — and winning — Power Five head coach.

But none of that is Harsin's fault. At some point, I have to believe these universities will stop signing contracts like the one Auburn gave Malzahn, but it doesn't seem like that's going to happen anytime soon. And as long as those deals are still being signed, the cost of doing business will just keep going up.