Here's the situation, and this is where Doris is taking a risk the right way. Lets assume Sydney is geting paid 400K a year. And he leaves to go to a higher profile school after this year. Well, he would have 6 years remaining times 400K/year or 2.4 mil left on the contract. Its my understanding that most buyouts are 50% of the remaining contract...... so Fairfield would be due 1.2 million. In theory, Sydney is responsible to pay that money, but the school he goes to picks up that tab.
The end result is Fairfield paid 2 years of his contract (800K), and received 1.2 million in return. Essentially, we made 400K profit, and really did not pay Sydney a dime.
This works great if if Sydney moves up or stays with Fairfield. It backfires if we have to fire him...... But I don't think thats going to happen.
Have to think that SJ is looking for greener pastures. One trip to the dance and he could be gone. Cooley was the first to go directly from Fairfield to a bigger conference. Fairfield was a dead end for a lot of coaching careers.
Johnson said Wednesday afternoon by phone that he looked forward to continuing to build a championship-caliber program at Fairfield. The Stags already have two recruits in place for next season from the 2012 class in small forward Steve Smith and guard Doug Chappell, plus guard Lincoln Davis, who is at prep school in New Hampshire. Also, Seton Hall transfer Sean Grennan will be eligible.
The extension of Johnson and lacrosse coach Andrew Copelan over the summer means that AD Gene Doris has his top two men's coaches locked up through the 2019 season......
...This works great if Sydney moves up or stays with Fairfield...
Definitely a win-win situation for Fairfield men's basketball. My preference is for SJ to stay with Fairfield for some time. I'm doubting he'll be here through 2019 but I hope he stays long enough to see his first recruiting class graduate and leaves enough talent on the roster that his successor will be praising him much the same way SJ has praised Cooley the past two years.
Can't see Sydney staying for long if he has success with his recruits, given the fact he left his alma mater where he was a team captain and head coach. I just hope he gets us into the NCAAs at least once or twice!
Wow, here we are talking about contract extensions and SJ leaving and the guy has not won anythnig significant yet!
The only reason for the extension, IMO, is a $$$ reason. Joe Stags analysis is correct on this one. The extension is smart business .That is the university would benefit diretely from the buy-out clause in SJ contract which in effect would provide the funding, to pay the next replacement coach salary. SJ new employer would be funding FFlds. ''endowment" to buy a coach. I''m going to guess that SJ was under conntract at princeton and there was some monetary compensation paid to princeton either directly or indirectly for FFLd. to secure sidneys services.
Fairfield gave Sydney Johnson two more years to an existing contract, pushing him to 2019. Financial terms won't be released on the deal, but there are salary increases built in that will activate at a later date. Johnson made a bit of a controversial move a year ago when he left his alma mater Princeton after a thrilling entrance into the NCAA tournament with a last-second Ivy League playoff victory over Harvard at Yale. Johnson was emotional after that win and cried after the NCAA tournament near-miss loss to Kentucky. Johnson wasn't able to take Fairfield to the NCAA tournament in his first year, but has one of the top freshmen classes in the league and fully expects to challenge for the MAAC title in March. The Stags are 4-4 this season.
Glad to see Katz posting about Fairfield. He was a big proponent of Cooley and the program, I hope he continues to track the stags and keeps us in the conversation.
