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Texas A&M agreed to pay coach Jimbo Fisher an unbelievable amount of money to please just away over the weekend.
How much money?
Well, $77.5 million to be exact.
Now, we all know that $77.5 million is a lot of money. But in today’s college football landscape, it can be difficult to get a grasp on just how much it really is.
For starters, Fisher is set to be one of the highest-paid coaches in the nation for the foreseeable future despite, y’know, not actually coaching a football team.
But let’s dive a little bit deeper thanks to help from Matt Brown and his Extra Points newsletter.
Jimbo Fisher's $77.5 million dollar buyout is a truly staggering amount of money.
But to help put that in perspective, how about a little thread of ~*~*data journalism~*~*
— Matt Brown (@MattBrownEP) November 12, 2023
Let’s start with some international business.
Per Brown, Fisher’s $77.5 million dollar buyout is more than the Gross Domestic Product of Tuvalu. Tuvalu, a small island nation in the Pacific Ocean, has a GDP of “roughly $60 million.”
But what about a more targeted example?
Brown reports that Fisher’s $77.5 million dollar buyout is more than the TOTAL annual athletic budget for every single public school outside the Power 5.
He then points out that the median athletic budget spend across FBS football for the for 2022 fiscal year was $80.7 million.
But wait, there’s more!
Brown states that Fisher’s $77.5 million dollar buyout is more than what the entire American Athletic Conference and Conference USA made in ticket revenue, across every single sport, combined. That numbers is $68.95 million.
Obviously, different cities have different costs of living.
Suppose ol’ Jimbo wants to stay in College Station (for some reason).
Well, his $77.5 million dollar buyout would pay for more than 7.7 million bacon & cheese Whataburger Combosin College Station, Texas.
That’s a lot of beef and cheese!
Suppose you want to subscribe to Brown’s Extra Points newsletter?
Well, Fisher could pay for 1.3 million annual subscriptions.
Though Brown says he’s more than willing to give a bulk discount at that rate.
And with such good reporting, that seems like a steal.
Despite not coaching, Jimbo Fisher is going to be one very, very rich man.