Florida fans are plenty pleased to be playing in the SEC Championship Game this weekend. It’s been quite a good first year under new coach Jim McElwain.

McElwain looks to be a successful hire for Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley, and a good investment. Even at a high-profile program like Florida, it isn’t always easy to make the right hire.

Foley knows. He missed on Will Muschamp a few years earlier after trying to replace Urban Meyer, who had won two national titles at Florida.

After the Muschamp mess, it was important that Foley get his man. He wanted McElwain, and he wanted him bad.

But McElwain had an interesting contract in place at Colorado State. Hoping to end a coaching carousel there, former Colorado State athletic director Jack Graham gave McElwain a 10-year contract, with $15 million guaranteed. That kind of job security came with a stipulation, however. If McElwain chose to leave before his contract was up, it would cost $7.5 million to buy out the rest of his contract.

The buyout was a concern for Foley when he began seriously pursuing McElwain. This is, after all, a lot of money. Luckily for Foley, McElwain’s contract contained a condition which allowed CSU’s president to reduce the buyout fee for “extenuating circumstances,” mostly relating to if McElwain’s “dream job” were to come along. Even so, getting Colorado State to let go of such a successful coach would not come easily.

But Foley got it done.

He got the buyout reduced by $500,000 to $7 million total. Then he did some creative financing. The first $3 million is to be paid $500,000 a year through 2020. The other $2 million comes in a guarantee for Colorado State to play a game in Gainesville in 2018. The last $2 million? McElwain is shelling that out himself from his new, much higher, Gators salary.

 

Will Foley’s investment in McElwain be worth it? There’s no way to know for sure after just one year, but 10-2 and an SEC East title sure look good in Year One.

The buyout, at least so far, seems worth it.