Michigan State athletics booster Mat Ishbia didn’t really consider the financial risk last year when he decided to help fund a fully guaranteed 10-year, $95 million contract for football coach Mel Tucker.
It didn’t even matter to him that Tucker only had two previous seasons of experience as a college head coach with a combined record of merely 7-12. Ishbia said he still committed millions of dollars per year to pay for Tucker’s new deal, disregarding the possibility that Tucker’s tenure might turn sour someday, just like it does for so many coaches in a sport where half the teams must lose every Saturday.