Texas A&M isn't afraid of commitment.
That was apparent long before the Aggies used a 10-year, $75 million guaranteed contract to reel in Jimbo Fisher, the richest contract ever given to a college football coach.
Whether it's joining the SEC or spending $483 million to rebuild Kyle Field, A&M has made bold investments into its athletic program. One could argue those moves are the reasons the Aggies made the move for Fisher and handed him an unprecedented, guaranteed contract.
But the latest expenditure leaves no gray area for the Aggies to decide if Fisher's contract is worth the money, according to University of Miami associate professor Windy Dees.
"With this deal, it's championship or bust," said Dees, an A&M graduate who specializes in sports marketing and sponsorship.
Dees said the risk involved comes with the length of the term and the guaranteed money attached with it, especially given the market. A&M was recently one of a few schools to pay a coach eight figures to get out of a bad contract. The Aggies gave Kevin Sumlin $10.4 million, an amount due within 60 days of when A&M fired him, according to an agreement between the two schools.
The reason the Aggies are able to afford these spending habits is they have a rabid fan base in a state that loves football.
"No state takes football and winning in football more seriously than Texas," Dees said. "That's their bread-and-butter."
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According to USA Today, Texas A&M and the University of Texas were first and second in the country, respectively, in total athletic revenue for the 2015-16 school year, with football being the driving factor. Almost $100 million of the Aggies' $194.3 million in revenue was generated by the football program, according to the A&M report obtained by The News through an open records request.
When it comes to paying coaches, Texas schools are among the leaders. A&M, Texas and TCU were ranked among the top 10 in annual coaching salaries in 2017, per USA Today.
A&M will probably move up in the next year's ranking with Fisher's contract. The Aggies are paying him $7.5 million a year, which currently trails only Alabama's Nick Saban and Clemson's Dabo Swinney.
Fisher's salary is being paid entirely by A&M boosters, the school has said. But even if no state funds are used, the massive amount made A&M administrators pause, even though they were on the verge of hiring one of four active coaches who have won a national championship.
A&M President Michael Young said there's always angst when spending money, especially in this amount.
"The questions you ask (is) what you really need to be successful, what is going to be the return on that investment for the institution, not only financial returns but other returns," Young said.
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When Miami appeared on ESPN's College GameDay earlier this year, the three-hour show broadcast from the Hurricanes' campus made Dees and her programs a bit more popular.
As the director for the university's sports administration graduate program, she said she receives roughly 70 applications a year. After the ESPN appearance that resulted from Miami's run to the ACC Championship Game, Dees said she received 15 to 20 applications the next school day.
This shows why universities tend to spend lots of money on successful athletics programs, even if it means coaches are making tens of millions more than administrators and professors.
"A successful football program has a huge impact all over the university, even in terms of students applying," A&M Chancellor John Sharp said. "It has a monumental effect that you can't ignore."
From fall 2011 — A&M's last year in the Big 12 — to this semester, the total enrollment of A&M's College Station campus has jumped from 49,861 to 62,803.
Since joining the SEC, Sharp and the Aggies have seen other ways athletic success benefits a university. After the Aggies finished fifth in the country in 2012 and Johnny Manziel won the Heisman Trophy, A&M signed off to rebuild Kyle Field. That year, tax records show A&M's 12th Man Foundation raised $255.7 million in donations.
Sharp said when someone donated $10 million for Kyle Field, another $10 million was invested into something such as the engineering program. After Fisher's introductory news conference, Young said roughly $5 million of athletic revenue was donated back to the academic side of the university. And no matter the amount, many questions are asked, whether it's spending $75 million or $75.
But inevitably, A&M decided the investment was worth it in order to secure someone of Fisher's caliber.
"You want to take a challenge in which people behind you are as committed as you are, and I believe they are here," Fisher said Monday.
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When the board looked at how much to pay Fisher, A&M Board of Regents Chairman Charles Schwartz said the regents pored over every "jot and tickle" on the record-setting contract. They evaluated the deals of nine other prominent coaches, including Saban, whose Crimson Tide are in the College Football Playoff despite finishing second in the SEC West, which is A&M's division.
After thorough discussion, Schwartz said, the A&M board concluded "it was going to take a premium over existing contracts" to get Fisher to leave Florida State, where he was guaranteed $39.3 million if he was fired.
Now the onus of buying out Fisher for any reason falls on A&M. And given the length of the contract and where the market stands, there's a good chance he may never see the end of the 10-year deal.
Of 14 coaches in the SEC, Saban is the only one to have been at one school for more than a decade. Since the Crimson Tide hired him for the 2007 season, Alabama has won four national titles.
This year, five SEC schools fired their coaches for underperformance, with multimillion-dollar buyouts attached to each one. So far, A&M and Florida were the only two to give the incoming coaches more money.
Dees said the cycle of big guaranteed contracts doled out during the annual coaching carousel probably won't change at places like A&M.
"As long as there are boosters and donors that are willing to write checks, I don't see that changing," Dees said.
Everyone at A&M, including Fisher, understands what the expectations are for the football program after the historic deal.
A&M took a big risk when it left the Big 12 for the SEC. Since then, the Aggies have spared no costs in building a top-tier program. A&M athletic director Scott Woodward called the contract a "no-brainer" given the level of investment over the years, which is one of the reasons Fisher came to College Station.
Fisher's contract is just another $75 million in a quest to achieve football supremacy, something that could bring hundreds of millions to the rest of the university.
But the numbers attached to the guaranteed contract also represent the highest levels of risk, where anything short of trophies represents a bad deal.
"We just need to win championships," Woodward said.
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