Tennessee might be paying John Currie and Butch Jones more than $13 million to not to work for them for the next five years.
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Jones was fired in mid-November, in the middle of his fifth season as head coach. He coached the final three years under a deal signed following the 2014 season, when he went a modest 7-5. It was a two-year extension that ran through the 2020 season and paid him about $3.6 million per year. Jones was fired with more than three years left on his contract, so Tennessee owed him an $8.2 million buyout, paid in monthly installments through January 2021.
Dead money, but at least Tennessee can finally move on, right? Wrong.
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Currie hired Greg Schiano, above, until a protest killed the deal. (Ohio State Athletics)[/credit]
On Friday, Rick Russo of WVLT News in Knoxville reported athletics director John Currie — who arrived earlier this year from Kansas State — was also being fired after botching the search for Jones' replacement. If the report is true and Currie is fired for cause, Tennessee would owe him nothing. However, if he's fired without cause, they owe him the remainder of his salary, $5.4 million, according to Jesse Simonton of Volquest. That's also paid in monthly installments through mid-2022.
The grand total: $13.6 million.
And this will be used as a teaching point in economics and finances courses for decades.
