14 Comments
Aug 5, 2020Liked by Rick Chen

No way Cal does this. If they try, they may as well just cancel the football program. Even if Wilcox was failing and Cal wanted an excuse to get rid of him, this would be dangerous - any potential replacement would be wary of working here, knowing that he'd get screwed over in a heartbeat Cal had a chance.

I wonder if furd is considering Force Majeure to get out of contracts with the staffs of the 11 sports they're canceling?

Expand full comment
Aug 5, 2020Liked by Rick Chen

Dumb article. More likely Wilcox would want to invoke the clause to get a better deal.

Expand full comment

Lol “liked by Rick Chen”

Expand full comment
author

Nate isn't wrong! It's unlikely the University would invoke force majeure.

Expand full comment
author

+1

Expand full comment

If the university gets rid of Wilcox this year, I’m done. That would just be too stupid.

I would bet some money that this won’t happen. He seems too talented on the recruiting trail, and even if there is no football in 2020 you still have recruit. Kids are still graduating high school.

Expand full comment
Aug 5, 2020Liked by Rick Chen

One could argue that he is working full time on the recruiting trail for 2021 and this is resulting in some very interesting commits. Would be very shortsighted to not overlook 2020 as an outlier.

Expand full comment
author

I guess this is a related question. If college football is canceled for 2020 (not just abbreviated and/or pushed to the spring), does Wilcox still get the full pay? Or can the University furlough him or something along that line?

Expand full comment
author

Good question! I'll look into this and see if we can answer this in a future story

Expand full comment
Aug 5, 2020Liked by Rick Chen

I really don't think the university will invoke this clause for a couple of reasons. (1) Wilcox is a talented coach and firing him for any reason other than poor performance on the field or for "cause" - normally moral turpitude would make the job unattractive to other candidates. (2) The university does not pay his full compensation but depends upon donors, who are unlikely to want to part with him.

Expand full comment
Aug 5, 2020Liked by Rick Chen

Doesn’t the University pay only a small portion of the coaches contract? Tall enough

Talent fees, and all that nonsense?

Expand full comment
author

Yes that should be the case. I think the state will pay the coach a standard deal and the rest gets handled by the talent fee.

Expand full comment
Comment deleted
Expand full comment
Aug 5, 2020Liked by Rick Chen

The tenor of the article seemed to agree that this benefits Wilcox, not Cal.

Expand full comment
Aug 5, 2020Liked by Rick Chen

My thoughts exactly. If he were to terminate the contract, he could take his staff and likely some of his recruits and make more money turning around some other program. Scott Frost's seat may be getting warm.....

Expand full comment