Easy Solution to Buyout for Arkansas Head Coach Bret Bielema

Written by Ryan Wright

Twitter: @RyanWrightRNG

The 2017 college football season has not started out the way Arkansas fans, the coaching staff, and players alike had hoped. The Razorbacks are 2-3, 0-2 in SEC play, with a tough row of games still left to play. The grumblings of unsatisfied fans began last season after several second half collapses in winnable games for head coach Bret Bielema turning into a loud chorus of naysayers calling for new leadership on the sidelines in 2017. The sticking point for most fans in believing Bielema will be back in 2018 is his very hefty buyout clause, but that may be easily bypassed if the solution is a new head coach.

Widespread reports have Bielema’s buyout at $15.4 million with a drop to $11.7 million on Dec. 31. Debate has surfaced on the actual amount of the contract buyout downgrading the amount to $5.9 million by season’s end with a decreasing amount of $159,000 per month.

By the end of the 2017 season, if the fan base, alumni, and boosters are unhappy, the big price tag, no matter how high, will more than likely be met. Regardless of the sum, be it $15.4 million before the end of the year, $11.7 million on Jan. 1 or after, or the newly bantered about $5.9 million in December, the fan base is worried about losing recruits, but that might not be that big of an issue after all.

Bielema’s doings on the recruiting trail maybe his undoing in Fayetteville, in more ways than one. Uneven recruiting efforts have 15 seniors on the roster. The Hogs currently have 11 verbal commitments to the 2018 class. Depending on gray-shirt promises, there are only four open spots left, in theory. All 11 of the verbal commitments are supposed to be early signees, part of the new Collegiate Commissioners Association approved rules adopted in May. The early signing period is a 72-hour period from Dec. 20 to 22.

If Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long is pushed into the direction of letting Bielema go, and the wait is until the end of December or the beginning of January, for the most part, all the 2018 recruits should be signed. The incoming coach would be saddled with the new players, a fit or not, but that would eliminate a late push on the trail to sell the program under a new head coach in a boom or bust rush fashion.

The Hogs are not completely down and out in the 2017 season yet, but one can reasonably tack two more losses on the schedule with a trip to No. 1 Alabama this week and No. 10 Auburn arriving in Fayetteville on Oct. 21. The final five games are toss up opportunities for the Razorbacks; at Ole Miss, vs. Coastal Carolina, at LSU, vs. Mississippi State, and vs. Missouri. The Hogs could easily be 7-5 with the opportunity for an eighth win in a bowl game, which should save Coach Bielema’s job, or could drop to 3-9 with a multimillion dollar buyout looking more and more likely.

It would be a lot easier to say goodbye to Coach Beilema at $5.9 million with a 3-9 record. The debate – will a 6-6 season save his job at Arkansas? No matter what, waiting until the end of the season will make the next steps forward easier to take.

Photo credit: wholehogsports.com; Coach Bielema at an Arkansas practice