Jimbo Fisher is no longer head football coach at Texas A&M University. He was fired on Sunday.
The 58-year-old will get paid a massive sum of money not to coach the Aggies.
Fisher, who won a national title at Florida State in 2013, left Tallahassee for College Station on a 10-year, $75 million agreement in 2017. He later signed a fully-guaranteed contract extension in 2021 worth $95 million.
It guaranteed that, no matter what happened, Fisher would get paid $95 million — even if relieved of his duties as a college football coach.
Sure enough, Jimbo Fisher was fired. He is still owed more than $75 million.
The school must pay Fisher that amount of money despite his ouster!
Jimbo Fisher is a beneficiary of the price of oil.
There is an intrinsic tie between Texas A&M University and oil. As an agricultural school in the Lone Star State, a large portion of the alumni base has ties to liquid gold.
When oil is up, so are the Aggies.
Although crude oil prices recently dropped to a three-month low amid record U.S. production, it has been a very lucrative industry over the last few months. There is a lot of money in the pockets of oil company men right now.
The timing of Fisher’s firing is odd, considering that Texas A&M beat Mississippi State by 41 points on Saturday and reached bowl eligibility. However, it certainly felt like the writing was on the wall.
Perhaps the university and athletic director Ross Bjork thought that it would be best to get it over with now, while the funds are there, in the case that oil is to keep dropping. Maybe it took 10 games to gather the money necessary to pay a coach $75 million not to coach.
Regardless of what happened, Fisher is gone. He will get paid a fortune to be unemployed.