Jimbo Fisher may have coached his last game for the Texas A&M football team. At the least, it would appear his days are numbered.
Reports surfaced on Sunday that the school Board of Regents has been meeting about the future of Fisher and his involvement in the football program.
After a four-hour meeting Friday and another meeting scheduled Sunday, it looks as though Fisher will be out of a job before Monday. Bruce Feldman has reported Fisher has already been fired.
The school has Fisher under contract for eight more seasons. The financial decision to move off the head coach at this stage is not unreasonable given the failures of the program, but financially massive.
Just how massive?
Jimbo Fisher's buyout would be a massive financial hit
Jimbo Fisher's buyout would reportedly be $75 million. It's the second-largest buyout in college football, right behind Kirby Smart at Georgia and just ahead of Brian Kelly at LSU.
The sheer amount behind Fisher's contract has been thought to make the head coach unfirable regardless of job performance, but the A&M decision makers appear ready to buck that idea completely.
To scale, all of the 2022 buyouts from Power 5 programs in 2022 wouldn't even meet the $75 million Fisher would be due. It would be a monumental payout that could hamstring the school for the future if it needs to cheap out on its next head coach to keep affording to pay Fisher.
Or, perhaps, it could force the school to get creative with its next hire and look toward a savvy replacement that might fit better in the NIL-focused college athletics world.
