Three weeks before the season starts. It is apparently not health related. He is only 55 years old. Another coach quitting because they hate where college athletics is right now? Looks like it.
Virginia MBB coach Tony Bennett suddenly retires
- Thread starter FlotownDawg
- Start date
Don’t blame them one bit.
When you start hashing it out what these coaches have to do now with the portal and NIL I can easily see the burnout.
When you start hashing it out what these coaches have to do now with the portal and NIL I can easily see the burnout.
I heard he left his heart in San Francisco.
The interesting part is he just signed a 4 year extension on his contract in July with a built in automatic extension for another year in 2026 for 4 million a year with a guaranteed 5% raise and bonuses built in the contract. He is leaving at least 20 million on the table even if he lost every game from now on and was fired.
There’s got to be more to this story. You don’t just quit on your team 3 weeks before the season starts just because you suddenly decided you don’t like NIL & the transfer portal.
I bet whatever the story is, it involves something that remains undefeated
Agree, even if he was not happy about the general trend of things. He wouldn't do that, he would at least see that contract out. Something will surface event.
I'd say this is the leader in the club house.
To leave that much money on the table there can be only one explanation. Side piece. Remains undefeated.
Likely more to it than that. For folks who throw out Saban's name for retiring due to the changes in the game, he's 72, 7-10 years older than what most consider, "retirement age."
That's certainly the club house leader, but supposedly he turned down a raise in 2019 to allocate more to his staff. He may legitimately not care about having money beyond a certain point.
He's been coaching at UVA for 15 years. He's probably got at least $10M in investments at this point. $10M won't fund a jet setting lifestyle, but it will fund a very nice lifestyle indefinitely. I think I'd always want more to make sure my family is set for longer, but I'd like to think my personal consumption wouldn't ever move much beyond $250k annually in spending, which would easily be supported by $10M.
Unless I got a turbo prop, I'm not sure what I would spend money on beyond that. I guess a nice boat would escalate that spending pretty quickly also.
Translated. I can't coach players that are making half of what I make.
I got a different message, this new model sucks (in every sport and I 100% agree) and he doesn't make enough to rebuild the program after every damn season
More like “I’m not coaching in a system where I have zero leverage over the 18-22 year old players.”
That’s why he said there needs to be collective bargaining. There needs to be contractual obligation. Otherwise the players hold the whole system hostage.
And this is why I’m skeptical there will ever be a collective bargaining agreement. The players already have everything they could possibly want. Why would they give any of it up?
A revenue sharing plan like what’s being planned without a CBA would be open to numerous antitrust lawsuits because of the caps proposed.
Slight correction. The players in the top 1% already have everything they want. I think that it'll be all the rest that aren't getting paid like the stud QB and skill guys that will end up meeting the vote requirements for a players' union and bargaining deal