Why We Should Keep Gustav As HC (long post)

(Was going to post this as a reply in another thread, but thought it deserved a separate topic. You may disagree )

It’s obvious to everyone that we grossly overpaid Gustav following the 2017 season. But I look at his outrageous buyout clause (foist upon us largely by two individuals whom we entrusted to make this program-defining decision, and subsequently also paid millions to go away, in typical AU fashion) as a blessing in disguise.

It seems to me that we’re on the right side of the bell curve of CFB’s popularity as a sport. And as popularity falls, so will revenue. And once the major networks inevitably decide to cut their losses, there won’t be enough TV revenue to offset the expenses of running a championship football program.

The Big Corhuna has surely accelerated the process, but it was already underway. As the cohort of people who care enough about traditional team sports shrinks, the costs associated with maintaining a competitive major college athletic program continue to grow, and a sport like football that requires a huge commitment in money and resources becomes a luxury no competent institution can justify.

Throw in the collapse of the economic viability of high school football (not to mention the issues regarding demographic change and physical safety of the players) will lead to the inevitable decline of talented recruits, which may even explain AU’s recent failures attracting “SEC caliber” linemen - there’s just not enough of them to go around anymore.

It’s probably not in our best interest as a University to waste tens of millions of dollars pursuing a dying dream. Let Malzahn (and Sexton) collect their ridiculously exorbitant paychecks until 2023, when it becomes cheaper to pay his buyout than it does his salary. By then it will probably be a moot point anyway, as most of the fans will have found better things to do on fall Saturdays. Many already have.

As a disclaimer, I must point out that my own passion for what the kids refer to as “sportsball” has declined precipitously over the past few years. Once I was a fanatic devotee of the Braves, the Falcons, and all manner of Auburn athletic teams. But time and life’s circumstances have slowly dimmed my enthusiasm for such pursuits. I imagine that I’m not alone amongst my demographic group.

In spite of it all, I still feel an irrational desire to see AU football succeed. But there is a price for such irrationallities, and my pride in AU’s athletic accomplishments, divorced as they are from any of my own contributions to them, simply isn’t worth it anymore. Buying out Gustav’s contract - and those of his staff - would be the ultimate example of throwing good money after bad, at a time we can least afford it.

So I think its time we learned our lesson and abandoned our unfounded and unrealistic expectations of gridiron glory.

This is the face of Auburn football. We are who we are.