From Sportico.Com:
"After a search process that spanned nearly three months and numerous rumored rejections, Penn State hired Matt Campbell to be its football coach last December. The Big Ten school gave Campbell a rare fully guaranteed contract, worth at least $70.5 million over eight years.
The deal is off to a rough start.
With a 21-18 loss to Michigan on Saturday, the Nittany Lions have now lost four straight games and remain winless in conference play. Empty seats have plagued Beaver Stadium, and fans have booed Campbell for weeks.
“There’s a lot of season left,” Campbell told reporters after losing to Michigan, a statement that may actually be true for him despite many fans calling for his job. If Penn State ousts Campbell this week, it would cost the school more than $62 million.
Campbell is the poster child for a new chapter in college football’s broken economics. Penn State gave a coach who was nowhere near its first choice one of the more lucrative and ironclad contracts in the sport. Less than one year later, the golden handcuffs have boomeranged back. Campbell may be too expensive to fire.
Penn State is far from alone here. Over the past few years, big time college athletic departments have been unable to rein in the market for coaches, continuing to drive salaries—and maybe more critically, buyouts—to all-time highs. That was fine in the past, when frustrated boosters would often pony up the cash needed to make a mid-contract move.
Now, however, schools are pushing every last dollar into the pockets of athletes. It’s exposed a strange paradox. Schools have negotiated themselves into a box: unwilling to pay coaches less, and as a result, unable to fire them. Whoops!"