Business Only: Athletic Directors Have to Fire Football Coaches Earlier Than Usual, Due to NCAA Calendar

We’ve reached the eighth week of the college football season, and it’s time for some athletic directors around the country to start making hard decisions about the future of their programs. 

While in previous years this might’ve been a decision that was made following the season’s end, we’re in a new era of college sports that makes this a situation that needs to be handled now, not later. 

There was already one head coach who was fired on Sunday, as Southern Miss decided it was time to move on from Will Hall after the program continued heading in the wrong direction and fans voiced their displeasure following another loss this past weekend. 

It wasn’t a head coach position, but Utah and Oklahoma decided it was time to make a move at offensive coordinator, even if the Utes wanted to say that Andy Ludwig resigned on his own accord. And there will be more to come over the next month, as we inch closer to the end of the regular season. 

It’s not as if we haven’t seen this in the past, with the likes of Jimbo Fisher, and even Les Miles. But now there’s another problem that’s working against athletic directors across the country, and it all centers around the new calendar for the transfer portal, along with season-ticket renewals. 

New Transfer Portal Window

As the NCAA decided to roll out the new transfer portal window, which was shortened to just 20 days, but starting the day after the conference title games are concluded, these decisions have to be made now, rather than later. 

With everything that is changing in college athletics, including the upcoming revenue-share with student athletes, there’s not enough time to sit around and wait for the regular season to end. Sure, an athletic director can wait until the final game, but also put together a short-list of candidates behind the scenes, and discuss this with agents across the country. But they can only keep a secret for so long, and some of these schools are going to need big-money donors to help pay for the next staff, along with the buyouts for the current group. 

Herein lies the problem, and nothing has changed over the years when it comes to firing head coaches. But now, how quickly the school needs to do this in order to have time to find the right guy, as well as time to open the transfer portal, is in the agenda.

So, what usually happens after the last game of the season will happen in the next four weeks, and time is running out.

There is no such thing as ‘Perfect Time’ anymore

“In this day and age, we can’t sit around waiting for the right moment anymore,” one AD told OutKick in Nashville two weeks ago. “If I had to make a decision, and thankfully I don’t, the new calendar and the 12-team league will make it difficult. You can make a decision now, but now the coach will win a few games over the course of the week and you think for a second, you have to get out of that situation, and understand that you’re trying to sell a product If people stop buying that product,’ and the financial outlook does not look good at the time of making the call.

“Trust me, it’s not easy. If I have to ask a sponsor to help with the financial consequences of my decision, they want to have an idea of ​​who should be hired next. Don’t you get me wrong, I understand where they are from, and that’s the risk you take when you ask for help.”

It’s Just Business, and Coaches Have a Short Window of Time

In the past, coaches would receive at least a full recruiting season to turn around a program. But all that changed with the transfer portal and NIL.

Now, you can combine the list within two years. As much as they hate the process, coaches can use the portal to win enough games to make a bowl in their first year, if they get the right group of guys.

But, after Nick Saban’s performance last year, athletic directors have become more careful to make sure they get the right guy at the right time. After we saw the transfer-portal of this past winter’s training, college football fans realized that there is no more honesty in this business, if they hadn’t already thought so. that in the past.

So, the management knows that deciding to fire the coach in late October or early November is the only way to start the next season. But the problem is that if you are a program with a high pedigree, hiring a coach before the college football season starts is a tall order, especially if one of your targets is playing in the postseason.

And like I said before, you will have a hard time keeping quiet if you make phone calls and gauge their interest in the opening. Think about how much talk there has been around Billy Napier since the loss to Texas A & M, where fans were waiting the next day to see what the Gators’ management will do.

No More ‘Wait and See’

I promise you Florida boosters aren’t just sitting around waiting to see a complete train wreck. Well, they have a plan, but it takes everyone getting on the same page to make that decision, especially if Scott Stricklin is still hoping he doesn’t have to fire Napier. What if Florida pulls off an upset or two in the next month?

The odds of trying to get the UF administration to approve the firing of the head coach are understandable.

This is just one example, but for a school like Florida, they can’t keep their fingers crossed, and the same can be said for UAB, when this crisis of time goes on. It’s past time to fire Trent Dilfer and start looking for the next coach. And guess what? A program like UAB, which was rebuilt under Bill Clark, can come out and start talking to their new coach.

Why? Because UAB will hire an experienced coach, who may not be the head coach of a program currently fighting for a playoff berth. They would go after a fiery OC who actually has experience at the academy level, and could be hired right after Dilfer is fired. We will see if this actually happens.

Southern Miss thought about it, and knew they had to start their search.

At the end of the day, none of this is personal, it’s the way schools have to do business now in this new era of college sports.