re: Why is paying Jimbo $75 million a big deal?

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It's funny watching A&M fans act like this will be nothing if it comes down to it.

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It will be nothing. Boosters raised about half of that $75 million to get our BOR to sign off on it. People are excited about Jimbo and we are opening our wallets to see what he can do at A&M.

Hell we probably raised the other half of that contract with just the extra season ticket sales the next two or three years no matter how he does.

This is all entertainment so excitement drives the$ bus, not actually success.

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I would love to hear what hire we could have realistically gotten the last cycle that COULD have elevated our program to that level in your opinion. You make it sound like we had the right idea but picked the wrong guy.

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I'm talking about two different things. You know I'm a hobbyist when it comes to A&M and what type of program they'll eventually be. I love talking about branding and exposure and the like, and I imagine your interests with A&M are more personal and perhaps more practical.

I think Jimbo is probably a star-dependent coach in the SEC, which is common. Few can build the working class team full of blue chips where nobody has to particularly feature but you can still win titles. I think when it comes to who offers you the best on-paper, pile up the pros and cons, success for the money, and is likely available, Jimbo was a solid choice.

The next thing I'm talking about when I mention elevating the program is who gets you immediately top billing over the next 7 years on ESPN, on Gameday, in recruits' living rooms, etc. Jimbo is a name and I think the movement to the SEC will generate initial buzz, but he's not a particularly dynamic guy and so I see little value-add in that category.

We come at this from different perspectives. I see A&M as a school that has all the makings of a top tier program but one that most people presently skim over because it's a boring program. Your logos and colors and branding are boring. To the outside world your traditions are boring. Jimbo is pretty boring.

Again you may not care about this stuff. But for 75m guaranteed, I'm looking for wins, credibility, and massive exposure. I think you'll get #1 at least partially, you definitely got #2, but I don't think #3 is something that Jimbo will do much with.

Now, I'm not certain you could get guys with higher upside in that category, and if you could, they probably wouldn't have Jimbo's resume. But this comes back to me thinking Jimbo is a consistently very good, but not elite, coach, and hence I'd be willing to take on a little more risk for my money if I believed enhanced national exposure was good for the program.

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I think Jimbo is probably a star-dependent coach in the SEC, which is common. Few can build the working class team full of blue chips where nobody has to particularly feature but you can still win titles

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I think this is fair. The difference between Jimbo and say Sumlin for me is I trust him to properly identify and develop a star level QB more than Sumlin, and I also trust him more to have a roster in place that allows us to capitalize on the window with that player (specifically having solid talent on the front 7 on defense).

If he can win 8-10 most years then have a two year window with an elite QB where we do more, I think our fanbase is fine with that. It will come down to capitalizing on having that player though with actual hardware

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You owe him $75 million right now, he doesn't even have to work tomorrow.

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That is where you are wrong. He does have to work tomorrow. He has to work 10 years to get that money, otherwise its a breach of contract.

Now he could start not caring about his job tomorrow, but really any coach could. Coach O has a buyout too, they all do. Jimbos is just bigger.

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I still think it's bad for any program to make financial decisions because of the tv deal we have right now. That deal is not sustainable.

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I mean a contract is a contract. Both ESPN and CBS are on the hook for what they promised to pay the SEC through 2025, and by then either Jimbo has worked out and was extended or he was fired.

If anything now is the right time to take these kids of risks, when the ESPN deal is locked in place and Mickey Mouse has to eat any losses instead of the SEC.

What is not sustainable is expecting the same amount of money from the NEXT tv deal in 2025, but between now and then the league is locked into making the big bucks.

We are just taking advantage.

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guaranteed

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We come at this from different perspectives. I see A&M as a school that has all the makings of a top tier program but one that most people presently skim over because it's a boring program. Your logos and colors and branding are boring. To the outside world your traditions are boring. Jimbo is pretty boring.

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I am interested in the same angle (branding, exposure, etc.) as you, which is why we interact so much on the forum.

Personally I see the situation differently, but you might correctly view me as biased.

From my perspective, the A&M brand in 2011 was in a BAAAAAD place. We weren't known nationally, and we didn't have any edge in recruiting over programs like Texas Tech or TCU.

A big part of the SEC deal was us being able to wrap ourselves in the SEC brand, and use that brand to repair ours and elevate us over TCU and Tech permanently. But we hit the limit with that with Sumlin, so now we hired a guy with a powerful personal brand thanks to a national title to basically allow us to borrow his personal brand to boost ours once again.

You see boring, and maybe the country sees boring, but the recruits in Texas see that one guy recruiting the region locally (so Texas, OU, LSU, other Big 12 teams) has a national championship and the rest don't. This has given us an edge in recruiting that no other coach we could have hired would have given us.

Frankly our brand and our color and our logo will never get fixed. We are at our ceiling on that, as previous attempts have just made things worse.

And no up-and-comer coach would have had the personal brand value to get recruits to sign on. Tom Herman got a lot of recruiting momentum at our expense last year that would still be going right now if we didn't hire Jimbo. Tom would have crushed say Chad at A&M.

So we bought the best brand we could at the best price we could. Could we have done better for the money or gotten a bigger personal brand? Maybe, but no modern program has.

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love talking about branding and exposure and the like,

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Branding aND exposure?WTF? The football program is the 2nd biggest money maker in CFB and leads the SEC in attendence

Schools that worry about "branding"and exposure don't have those issues.

The only "branding" they need is to win big consistently...

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The only "branding" they need is to win big consistently...

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I agree it's the best way to improve a program's national exposure and standing.

Now tell me, why is national exposure and branding important to football programs?

Hint: It's what is driving optimism at UGA right now