Texas A&M shocked everyone this football offseason not with the firing of Kevin Sumlin or even the hiring of Jimbo Fisher, but rather with the amount of money the Aggies gave Fisher. That's led to a few people taking a swipe at Fisher and his 10-year, $75 million contract including Florida State president John Thrasher. It looks like Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith is now the latest to do so.
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Smith was speaking during Ohio State's Board of Trustees' Talent and Compensation Committee meeting last week and mentioned how he is already looking at Urban Meyer's current contract that still has three years left on it. However, he's not using Texas A&M as any sort of benchmark because it's "so ridiculous."
"I don't even put Texas A&M in our sphere because I'm considering Urban [Meyer]'s situation with three years left on his contract," Smith said. "Talking with [Susan Basso, vice president of human resources] and [Joanna McGoldrick, associate vice president of total rewards], that's not even someone that we're comparing with because it's so ridiculous.
Smith seems to be fairly down to earth about the coaching salaries he has to juggle as he also said that he doesn't consider Alabama's contract situation because they are paying Nick Saban an exorbitant amount of money.
"It's the same way with Alabama and their total salary. Take it off the sheet because it doesn't matter. Because it's just no value to it. It's a reactionary type of management."
It's a pretty good reaction to winning multiple titles —- Saban is making over $11 million —- but Ohio State does have other sports it has to worry about as far as paying good coaches and their assistants. Saban also has a few more titles than Fisher does at this point in the game. Granted, he's much younger and will be coaching until after Saban retires (most likely).
However, Meyer can't be too happy about hearing that as he is making about $6.5 million now and it doesn't sound like he will be breaking the $7.5 million barrier where Fisher sits. Of course, that could change should he lead the Buckeyes to the national title once or multiple times before his contract runs up.
[h/t TampaBay.com]
