College football coaches have a stressful job. But there are excessive rewards for too many of them — sometimes even those who don’t win championships.
Take the case of former Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis. He only had two winning seasons in five years, but when things were going well during his first year, 2005, he signed a 10-year deal with the Fighting Irish.
The school fired Weis after the 2009 season, paying him $6.6 million. According to information made public last week, for each of the next six years, through 2015, Notre Dame paid him another $2 million. His total buyout cost the school nearly $19 million, and Weis got another $5 million after being fired at Kansas in 2014.
Weis was a far more successful assistant coach in the NFL. But you could not tell that from his income.
This is a textbook case of how universities greatly overpay many of their coaches, including those who flame out.
