PITTSBURGH — Massachusetts Athletic Director Ryan Bamford wasted little time making his move.
Less than two hours following UMass men’s basketball’s loss to St. Bonaventure in the Atlantic 10 Tournament, Bamford made the decision to fire head coach Derek Kellogg after nine seasons with the program. ESPN’s Jeff Goodman had the initial report before UMass released a press release following the game.
“Decisions like this are always difficult but after a thorough review of our men’s basketball program, I believe that a leadership change is needed to realize a higher level of competitive success expected at the University of Massachusetts,” Bamford said.
The Minutemen finished the 2016-17 season with a 15-18 (4-14 A-10) record after bringing in their best recruiting class in the Kellogg era.
UMass suffered back-to-back losing seasons and were 46-51 in the three years following its run in the NCAA Tournament during the 2013-14 season.
Kellogg took over the head coaching position prior to the start of the 2008-09 season and finished with a 155-136 record during his nine years.
“I want to thank Derek for his unwavering commitment to UMass basketball as both a student-athlete and our head coach,” Bamford said. “Derek will always be a Minuteman and we wish him and his family well in the future.”
UMass has hired Folger Consulting to assist its coaching search. Former Associated Press National Coach of the Year Eddie Folger will assist during the process.
Andrew Cyr can be reached at [email protected], and followed on Twitter @Andrew_Cyr.
Ed Cutting, Ed.D. • Mar 10, 2017 at 3:25 pm
How much will this cost UMass — how much more will UMass Students have to pay because of this?
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1: UMass can’t just “fire” Kellogg, he has two years left on his contract, and like a cell-phone contract, UMass has to pay to end it early. The Statehouse News Service says that it will cost about a million dollars to “buy out” the 2017-18 & 2018-19 seasons.
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2: 4/5 of his money isn’t salary, it’s licensing agreements, shares of TV revenue, all kinds of things — Kellogg’s total take in 2016 was $1.6M — and it will be vert difficult for UMass to prove how much of the 2017 money he isn’t entitled to. Furthermore, unless his lawyers are completely stupid, he’ll get paid every time the Admissions Office uses pictures/video of his team in recruitment literature/advertising. Add $1M more for this.
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3: The new guy is going to want to bring in his own assistant coaches & trainers. All of the current ones who aren’t retained will get severance payments — probably another million dollars.
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4: Folger Consulting isn’t going to do a job search for free, and there are a lot of costs associated with a search of this magnitude — travel, meals/lodging, police overtime, etc. Another million dollars.
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So we’re talking FOUR MILLION DOLLARS just to fire Kellogg in addition to the $1.6M total compensation for the coach position, which the new coach will get.
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By contrast, UMass paid $4.5 M for the Marching Band Building — with an additional $1.2M donated by UMMB alumni.
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This is real money — to put a human face on this, instead of firing Kellogg, UM could have given the entire Collegian staff a full 4-year tuition & fee waiver with a lot of money left over.
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Or, instead of raising tuition/fees next fall, UMass could have lowered them — there is a real human cost to students here.