Midweek top 10: Tucker, Fisher and the financial lunacy of 10-year mega-contracts

ALTOONA, Pa. -- Mel Tucker had one good season and very little experience as a head coach. Then Michigan State did something that, as of right now, looks really dumb.

The Spartans gave Tucker what has to be the worst contract in college football.

At least Jimbo Fisher has won a national championship (at Florida State in 2014). He has a terrible contract too, at Texas A&M, and is right there neck and neck in the worst contract department.

That's where we'll start this edition of the midweek top 10.

1. What in the world are these schools thinking with massive 10-year contracts?

One year ago today, Penn State stunned everyone by giving James Franklin a new 10-year contract worth $85 million. It has long been my belief that then-athletic director Sandy Barbour panicked and got played in that whole contract situation, because with Penn State struggling, Franklin could not have had much leverage left as USC and LSU were seeking a new coach.

A year later, Franklin has Penn State on the verge of a 10-2 season. Even if he were coaching for his job this season, as I felt he should have been, he still would be getting a new contract right about now as a reward for this strong bounce-back season.

So, congratulations to Franklin. And in some ways, this gets Barbour off the hook -- for now at least.

The problem wasn't giving Franklin a new contract. The problem was making it a 10-year contract with enormous guaranteed money. If Penn State were to fire Franklin, it would owe him $8 million per season, times the remaining years left on his deal.

Franklin isn't getting fired any time soon, since he has things rolling again at Penn State. But that doesn't guarantee the Nittany Lions may not run into trouble in a few years, and he would still be guaranteed a massive buyout amount over a lot of years.

By comparison, the deal Penn State gave Franklin looks phenomenal right now compared to the deal Michigan State gave Tucker one year ago. He got a 10-year contract worth $95 million, guaranteed through a buyout if he gets fired.

Goodness gracious.

Tucker went 5-7 his first season as head coach at Colorado in 2019. He then went to Michigan State and was 2-5 in the 2020 COVID season. He hit the transfer portal hard and enjoyed a terrific 2021 season, leading Sparty to an 11-2 record and Peach Bowl victory over Pitt.

The school took a gigantic gamble in shelling out the massive 10-year contract to Tucker, despite a short window of success.

Wow, has that gamble backfired -- so far, at least.

This year, things have been disastrous at Michigan State. The team not only has been a massive disappointment on the field at 5-6 -- including a home loss to lowly Indiana last week -- the Spartans also became a national embarrassment because of this tunnel attack at Michigan last month.

That's despicable.

Charges were finally filed Wednesday. They include:

Now, Penn State also had a tunnel incident at Michigan, and it's likely that some Lion players acted inappropriately there. But the worst thing that came out of that situation was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich being launched by someone with Penn State toward the Michigan players.

Tucker's agent is Jimmy Sexton.

Franklin's agent is Jimmy Sexton.

Fisher's agent is Jimmy Sexton.

Apparently, Jimmy Sexton is the smartest person in college football. The super agent knows how to pull the strings with these universities and their leaders to get them to pay gigantic sums of money over a ridiculously long period of time to coaches.

And if the coaches struggle? Ha! Tough! They're still gonna get their money, and so is Sexton.

Fisher has to be the most overrated coach in all of sports. He is 3-7 this year with Texas A&M, which was ranked No. 6 in the preseason. He has recruited well with the Aggies, but they underachieve more than any powerhouse program around.

It seems like pretty much every A&M fan wants Fisher fired. But he just got a new 10-year contract last year, as well, and if he were to be fired, the buyout would be $86 million. Yeah, there's a ton of oil money at Texas A&M, but there cannot be enough money to just eat $86 million.

There have been some coaches with 10-year contracts where things have gotten off to a good start. There's Franklin at Penn State, Lincoln Riley at USC and Brian Kelly at Notre Dame.

But given what has happened with Tucker and Fisher, you'd have to think that schools will now be very leery about shelling out 10-year deals going forward. It has the risk of being financial malpractice if things go south in a hurry, as they have at Michigan State and Texas A&M, and there's really nothing the schools can do about it because they can't eat $80 million buyouts.

Lastly, if for instance Penn State had waited one more year to give Franklin a contract extension, there's reason to believe that he may not have received a 10-year deal. With a new president and new AD, surely they would have looked around the country and seen how things are going so badly with Tucker and Fisher, and you'd think it would have given them pause to be on the hook for that long of a period and that amount of money.

Then again, Jimmy Sexton is probably smarter than all those folks anyway, so it's also possible he still would have convinced Penn State to give Franklin 10 years.

At some point, this has got to stop. For that to happen, it may take multiple schools getting left holding the bag on $50-plus million buyouts, which could decimate their athletic departments in many other ways.

2. Could this be Manny Diaz's last game at Penn State?

Franklin made a tremendous hire with Diaz as the defensive coordinator to replace Brent Pry. Diaz has done a fantastic job this season, so much so that he almost certainly will be mentioned as a candidate for some head coaching jobs -- probably as early as next week.

If some school is interested in Diaz and he takes the job, there's almost no way he would be able to stick around for Penn State's bowl game. So, that makes it possible the Michigan State game could be Diaz's last with the Lions.

"Coach Manny is a genius," safety Ji'Ayir Brown said after last week's win at Rutgers.

"He's had an incredible impact," linebacker Curtis Jacobs said after that game.

Diaz went 21-15 in three seasons at Miami from 2019-21. He found the perfect landing spot with Penn State after getting fired by Miami, and it's just a matter of time before he gets another head coaching job.

Diaz is believed to be making about $2 million a year, the going rate for a high-profile coordinator. Whatever school is interested in hiring him would have to be a big enough program to where it could make it worth his while financially to leave Penn State. So, therefore, it would probably have to be a big-name program.

There will be more job openings starting next week when some schools move on from coaches, and it will just depend on exactly which schools might be interested and where. Then Diaz would have to determine if now is the right time to become a head coach again, or if he should stay at Penn State for another year, be patient and wait for something better to open up.

"I think sometimes being a head coach and going back to being an assistant, you can be an even better assistant because you view the profession, the game, and the world differently," Franklin said. "But he's been great. I think he's really enjoying it.

"I think he's done a really good job of not just teaching the Xs and the Os, but also building a culture on the defensive side of the ball, which is something I thought Brent did a good job of. Being the head coach of the defense, which is really what I want.

"I'm proud of him," Franklin later said. "I'm happy he's here. When you go into the defensive staff room, they've got really good morale. They have fun in there. They work hard. Everybody in that room has a voice. I think he's done a really good job, not just from the players, but with the staff, as well."

Franklin then closed his lengthy response on Diaz by suggesting he expects him back next season.

"I'm looking forward to the offseason where we have a little bit more time to talk," Franklin said. "After you've been here a year, what are your thoughts? Then also maybe to dig into kind of what his experience was like. Really haven't had the time to do that."

3. Could Bill O'Brien get fired at Alabama?

We see O'Brien's name come up for head coaching jobs all the time, but might he be leaving Alabama after this season for a different reason?

There are a lot of Bama fans who aren't happy with O'Brien's work as offensive coordinator this season. The Tide have lost two games and -- barring chaos -- are out of the College Football Playoff hunt, and their offense hasn't lived up to expectations despite having reigning Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young back.

It could be very interesting to see if Nick Saban decides to place the blame on O'Brien and move on from him after two seasons.

Here's what ESPN's Paul Finebaum recently said about the situation:

"(Alabama fans are) really disappointed and distraught and careful not to criticize Saban, especially when it comes to coaching decisions. They would much rather just call for the heads of (defensive coordiantor) Pete Golding and Bill O'Brien. That makes them feel better, and they're pretty much demanding it.

"Last week on our program, which is a moderately decent read of Alabama fans — they were belligerent. I mean, they would have been happy if Saban had fired both coaches walking out of the stadium in Baton Rouge last week, even though I thought Golding's unit played pretty well."

4. It appears to be Rose Bowl or Citrus Bowl for Lions

Talk about a gigantic swing. Penn State really needs some things to happen around the country that would enable both Ohio State and Michigan to get into the playoff, or else the Lions likely would be shut out of a New Year's Six game.

If both the Buckeyes and Wolverines make the playoff, Penn State would go to the Rose Bowl. For that to occur, USC would have to lose to either Notre Dame or in the Pac-12 championship game, or TCU would have to lose to Iowa State or in the Big 12 championship game.

If neither of those things happen, then the loser of the Ohio State-Michigan game likely gets left out of the playoff. And then Penn State may get shut out of the Orange and Cotton Bowls because, ranked No. 11, it is behind so many teams that would fill up spots in those NY6 games.

So, the Lions would be left to go to the Citrus Bowl, where Ole Miss seems to be the most likely opponent.

What a Rose Bowl appearance would mean for this season, compared to a Citrus Bowl appearance, would be a huge difference for Penn State.

If you're a fan, you need to be rooting for Notre Dame to beat USC this week. That would change a lot of the dynamics.

5. Lions stay put at No. 11 in CFP rankings

Penn State held steady at No. 11 in the latest rankings released Tuesday night. The bad news is that Tennessee remains ahead of the Lions, as the Vols are No. 10.

That's significant because Tennessee would be one of those teams that would take a New Year's Six bid -- likely the Cotton Bowl -- away from Penn State, since it's ranked higher.

6. Franklin lays it on thick with love for Land Grant Trophy

This was fantastic, as Franklin tried to show his appreciation for the hideous Land Grant Trophy.

"Playing for maybe the most beautiful trophy in all of college football," he said. "If you guys haven't seen it or anybody listening to this hasn't seen it, look it up. The Land Grant Trophy is just a sight to be seen. It's just beautiful."

Hahahaha! It's not!

7. High praise for long snapper Chris Stoll

Nobody notices the long snapper -- until he messes up. Then, everyone notices.

You know how we never, ever notice Penn State's long snapper? Because Chris Stoll is really, really good and never seems to make any mistakes.

"Externally maybe doesn't get talked about a lot," Franklin said. "Internally in our building, we talk about him all the time. He addresses the team a lot. We bring up his role. He is Mr. Consistent and has been that way his entire career. He's gotten better every single year, not only in his consistency as a snapper, but also as a blocker, and his ability to get down the field and make tackles. He's been awesome. Great student as well. Great spokesperson."

8. Big night for three Penn State wrestlers

Three of the Lions' best wrestlers took part in the prestigious NWCA All-Star Classic on Tuesday night in Austin, Texas, and all three picked up impressive victories. This is from Penn State's release:

No. 1 Carter Starocci, No. 1 Aaron Brooks and No. 2 Greg Kerkvliet each participated in the exhibition and all three came away with impressive victories. The NWCA All-Star bouts do not count as official NCAA matches, on the athlete's win-loss record or towards their RPIs.

Kerkvliet faced No. 4 Tony Cassioppi of Iowa in a rematch of last year's B1G semifinal match (won 6-4 SV by Cassioppi). Kerkvliet used a clean takedown in the first period to take a one-point, 2-1 lead after the opening stanza with 1:00 in riding time to his side. He chose down to start the second period and quickly escaped for a 3-1 lead. He took Cassioppi down once more and rode him for the bulk of the period before the Hawkeye escaped to 5-3 score. Cassioppi chose down to start the third period and eventually escaped to a 5-4 Kerkvliet lead but the Lion had a riding time point wrapped up. Kerkvliet iced the bout with a final takedown. Cassioppi added one final escape but Kerkvliet, with a riding time point, rolled to the 8-5 win.

Brooks battled No. 2 Parker Keckeisen of Northern Iowa in a rematch of the 2021 NCAA semifinal bout (a 6-4 Brooks win). Brooks took control early, taking Keckeisen down twice in the first two minutes for an early 4-1 lead. The Northern Iowa wrestler managed an escape before the period ended to cut Brooks' lead to 4-2, but Brooks had :50 of riding time. Keckeisen chose down to start the second period and Brooks quickly added to his lead, notching a third takedown to lead 6-4 after Keckeisen escaped. Brooks added a final counter takedown in the second to lead 8-5 after two periods. Brooks escapes to start the third period and quickly picked up his fifth takedown to up his lead to 11-5. Keckeisen managed a late escape after Brooks cut him loose, but Brooks had the riding time point locked up and rolled to an impressive 12-8 win.

Starocci took on No. 2 Mekhi Lewis of Virginia Tech in a rematch of last year's NCAA title bout (won 5-5, TB2 RT by Starocci) last March. Starocci controlled the pace of the first period, working his way in on three solid shots but Lewis was able to play defense and send the bout to the second period tied 0-0. Starocci chose down to start the second and quickly escaped in just :05 to take a 1-0 lead. Starocci continued to pressure Lewis in the second period but could not break through his defense and carried the 1-0 lead into the third. Lewis chose down to start the third period and Starocci went to work on top. The Nittany Lion put together a dominant ride, controlling Lewis for the entirety of the final stanza. In the end, he rolled up almost 2:00 in riding time and posted the impressive 2-0 victory.

9. Lady Lions pull off biggest comeback in program history

The Penn State women's basketball team trailed Syracuse by 21 points on Monday, 45-24, with less than seven minutes to go in the third quarter at the Bryce Jordan Center. Then the Lady Lions pulled off a stunning comeback and won easily, 82-69.

Penn State outscored Syracuse 58-24 over the final 17 minutes.

The really good win kept Penn State undefeated at 5-0. That's a great start for the program, which finished 11-18 last season.

You can check here for the postgame press conferences for coach Carolyn Kieger and players Makenna Marisa and Shay Ciezki.

10. Hockey team suffers third loss of season

Penn State has a pair of wins over No. 1 teams, then lost the second game of those series for the first two losses of the season.

The Lions beat Michigan State, 4-3, in the first game of a weekend series, then got pounded in the second game, 7-3, for the third loss of the season.

Penn State edged Alaska on Tuesday, 3-2, to improve to 12-3. The Lions are ranked No. 7 in the country.