Dabo Swinney has some important clauses that will kick in soon.
Sports contracts are a lot for people to read and understand, the contract of Dabo Swinney is no different. Most of us, myself included, want to know the years and guaranteed money – head coaches contracts can be fun when you look at the ancillary provisions like car allowances, plane usage, etc.
A friend of mine sent me Swinney’s contract today and out of boredom, I started to read through it to see what he and his agent added in there and it is pretty interesting.
The buyout stuff is fascinating and what it comes down to is Dabo Swinney will essentially never be fired as his buyout will never be less than nearly $10 million. Most Clemson fans don’t ever think it will get to that point, but stranger things have happened.
We all know about the Alabama buyout clause that ensures that should Swinney ever leave to become the Alabama head coach, he will have to pay the athletic department upwards of $2 million in additional money when compared to taking any other college football job.
Though even at its highest, his buyout to go to Alabama would be $6 million, which he can afford and Alabama would gladly pay if they wanted him bad enough. It’s not as rock-solid as people thought.
There are two allowances in his contract that are pretty interesting.
Retention Bonus
If Dabo Swinney is still the head coach of the Tigers on March 1st of this year, he will receive a $1 million dollar bonus for simply being employed.
While this contract was signed long before any pandemic was a thought, it is still interesting to see that this bonus has not been discussed. One million dollars is a lot of money, especially right now when the Clemson athletic department has cut jobs and salaries to hundreds of people.
He will receive another $1 million retention bonus on March 1, 2023, if he is still the head coach of Clemson football.
Good Faith Market Review
This is the most interesting clause in his contract.
What this Good Faith Market Review clause states is that should Dabo Swinney lead Clemson football to the College Football Playoff in 2022 or after, that the athletic department has to review his contract.
After this review, should Dabo not be among the three highest-paid coaches in college football, then the athletic department will have two options –
- Provide him a new deal that has him among the three highest-paid coaches in the sport
- Waive his personal buyout should he want to take a job elsewhere
This means that technically, he could become the head coach at Alabama at some point in the near future and never have to pay the personal buyout fee that this would take.
There is no doubt that if Dabo Swinney keeps leading Clemson football on and off the field as he has for the last decade, no one will have an issue paying any of the provisions in his contract and he is well worth the investment for the Clemson athletic department.
It is always great to be a Clemson Tiger but it is pretty great to be Dabo Swinney too.