Texas Board of Regents approve Tom Herman’s contract

During an open session on Saturday afternoon, the Board of Regents approved a five-year, $28.75-million contract for new Texas Longhorns head coach Tom Herman.

According to the term sheet released by the school, Herman’s contract starts at $5 million in 2017 and increases by $250,000 each year thereafter.

Performance bonuses include $100,000 to win the Big 12 championship, $250,000 for a national championship, and $100,000 if Herman earns recognition as the national coach of the year. He can make a maximum of $575,000 in bonuses per year.

If Herman is still employed by the school on December 25, 2019, he will receive a $1,000,000 retention bonus.

In the unlikely event that Herman terminates his contract before it expires, he will owe the school $3,000,000, plus the dollar amount equal to the total compensation due his assistant coaches at the time of his departure. The clause is extraordinarily unusual, if not unprecedented at Texas:

And though Herman’s contract isn’t fully guaranteed by the school like former head coach Charlie Strong’s deal, it’s not far off — Texas would owe Herman $5,000,000 for each remaining year of his contract. There’s also a full, 100-percent offset of any post-termination football-related income. Strong’s offset was only 50 percent.

The regents apparently weren’t happy with Strong’s fully-guaranteed contract, which could cost the school $30 million — Alex Cranberg called it “disastrous and embarrassing.” A fitting commentary on the Steve Patterson era.