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Pike's Buyout and Termination - Confusion and Clarification

Fat Koko

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Nov 28, 2022
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Pike has a contract. It has been amended six times.

Pike's initial contract includes three ways he can be terminated. The amendments, which typically extend term and boost salary, alter the termination economics.

1) By university for cause. Briefly, serious misbehavior not related to game results. Termination for cause by Rutgers is extremely unlikely. For example, Mike Rice was terminated without cause despite indisputable video evidence he physically abused his own players. Pike would get nothing if Rutgers fires him for cause.

2) By university without cause. Fired due to terrible game results because university bosses and donors agree the outlook is poor and want the coach gone. Pike gets his 100% of his salary paid bi-weekly. That amount, based on the salary table in the sixth amendment to his contract, totals slightly more than $24 million paid to Pike through 2031. Pike loses all benefits, such as his $12,000 car allowance.

3) By Pike. He resigns to take another job or to retire. This is sometimes called a buyout. According to the sixth amendment of Pike's contract, Pike would owe Rutgers $13 million. This amount ratchets down by $2 million after each season. Some have posted this amount is reduced by 50% if Pat Hobbs is not the athletic director. Pike's initial contract said this 50% reduction ended on May 31, 2024. That means the 50% reduction no longer applies, unless one of the first five amendments to Pike's contract pushed out this date.

My view - Pike gets two or three more seasons of poor results before he is terminated. Hopefully, the debate goes away because the results get better. If Pike does leave, the contract terms will likely be revised to be mutually agreeable to Pike and Rutgers.

1) Being fired for cause at Rutgers would require an act of moral turpitude the seriousness of which would be completely out of character for Pike. Close to zero chance - but few saw the Hobbs "resignation" that was effectively a termination for cause coming.
2) Unlikely after this or next season. Would be expensive for Rutgers to justify the 8-figure termination payments, and Pike has built up enough political capital to spend two or three more seasons attempting to improve results.
3) Unlikely after this or next season. Pike isn't ready to retire, especially when then would he would forfeit millions in future guaranteed earnings and at the same time owe Rutgers a buyout. At the same time, I do not see another school paying the buyout to bring in Pike, especially in light of recent results.

Odd tidbit that I can't explain: Pike's initial contract is effective March 21, 2016 but wasn't signed by Pike and Hobbs until January 8, 2018. Why was Pike on the jobs for 20 months before a contract could be agreed?

*Edited to correct Pike termination without cause amount
 
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Pike has a contract. It has been amended six times.

Pike's initial contract includes three ways he can be terminated. The amendments, which typically extend term and boost salary, alter the termination economics.

1) By university for cause. Briefly, serious misbehavior not related to game results. Termination for cause by Rutgers is extremely unlikely. For example, Mike Rice was terminated without cause despite indisputable video evidence he physically abused his own players. Pike would get nothing if Rutgers fires him for cause.

2) By university without cause. Fired due to terrible game results because university bosses and donors agree the outlook is poor and want the coach gone. Pike gets his 100% of his salary paid bi-weekly. That amount, based on the salary table in the sixth amendment to his contract, totals slightly more than $19 million paid to Pike through 2031. Pike loses all benefits, such as his $12,000 car allowance.

3) By Pike. He resigns to take another job or to retire. This is sometimes called a buyout. According to the sixth amendment of Pike's contract, Pike would owe Rutgers $13 million. This amount ratchets down by $2 million after each season. Some have posted this amount is reduced by 50% if Pat Hobbs is not the athletic director. Pike's initial contract said this 50% reduction ended on May 31, 2024. That means the 50% reduction no longer applies, unless one of the first five amendments to Pike's contract pushed out this date.

My view - Pike gets two or three more seasons of poor results before he is terminated. Hopefully, the debate goes away because the results get better. If Pike does leave, the contract terms will likely be revised to be mutually agreeable to Pike and Rutgers.

1) Being fired for cause at Rutgers would require an act of moral turpitude the seriousness of which would be completely out of character for Pike. Close to zero chance - but few saw the Hobbs "resignation" that was effectively a termination for cause coming.
2) Unlikely after this or next season. Would be expensive for Rutgers to justify the 8-figure termination payments, and Pike has built up enough political capital to spend two or three more seasons attempting to improve results.
3) Unlikely after this or next season. Pike isn't ready to retire, especially when then would he would forfeit millions in future guaranteed earnings and at the same time owe Rutgers a buyout. At the same time, I do not see another school paying the buyout to bring in Pike, especially in light of recent results.

Odd tidbit that I can't explain: Pike's initial contract is effective March 21, 2016 but wasn't signed by Pike and Hobbs until January 8, 2018. Why was Pike on the jobs for 20 months before a contract could be agreed?
As I said in another thread its not only about how much we have to pay Pike the next 3-4 years. How much money does his continuous losing cost the program? - season ticket sales, overall attendance, parking, apparel sales, and I'm sure there's more.
 
@Fat Koko i think it’s called a Memorandum of something but it’s basically a small term sheet and then official contracts are drawn up later. Ash was also hired like that
 
Pike isn’t going anywhere anytime soon unless he chooses to himself. Given his contract, he’s here for at least the next 3 seasons.

I think more realistically, RU will eat assistant contracts to upgrade our offensive coaching. It really comes down to whether Pike has it in him to fire assistants. He certainly has never done that at RU. Not sure about at stony brook. This will be a challenge for him though.
 
Pike isn’t going anywhere anytime soon unless he chooses to himself. Given his contract, he’s here for at least the next 3 seasons.

I think more realistically, RU will eat assistant contracts to upgrade our offensive coaching. It really comes down to whether Pike has it in him to fire assistants. He certainly has never done that at RU. Not sure about at stony brook. This will be a challenge for him though.
Can't improve without a half court offense that has player and ball movement.Hire a assistant coach from Princeton or UConn.It takes a special case where iso offense somewhat works ,ie,Baker,Young and Harper and they had scoring droughts.
 
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Pike has a contract. It has been amended six times.

Pike's initial contract includes three ways he can be terminated. The amendments, which typically extend term and boost salary, alter the termination economics.

1) By university for cause. Briefly, serious misbehavior not related to game results. Termination for cause by Rutgers is extremely unlikely. For example, Mike Rice was terminated without cause despite indisputable video evidence he physically abused his own players. Pike would get nothing if Rutgers fires him for cause.

2) By university without cause. Fired due to terrible game results because university bosses and donors agree the outlook is poor and want the coach gone. Pike gets his 100% of his salary paid bi-weekly. That amount, based on the salary table in the sixth amendment to his contract, totals slightly more than $19 million paid to Pike through 2031. Pike loses all benefits, such as his $12,000 car allowance.

3) By Pike. He resigns to take another job or to retire. This is sometimes called a buyout. According to the sixth amendment of Pike's contract, Pike would owe Rutgers $13 million. This amount ratchets down by $2 million after each season. Some have posted this amount is reduced by 50% if Pat Hobbs is not the athletic director. Pike's initial contract said this 50% reduction ended on May 31, 2024. That means the 50% reduction no longer applies, unless one of the first five amendments to Pike's contract pushed out this date.

My view - Pike gets two or three more seasons of poor results before he is terminated. Hopefully, the debate goes away because the results get better. If Pike does leave, the contract terms will likely be revised to be mutually agreeable to Pike and Rutgers.

1) Being fired for cause at Rutgers would require an act of moral turpitude the seriousness of which would be completely out of character for Pike. Close to zero chance - but few saw the Hobbs "resignation" that was effectively a termination for cause coming.
2) Unlikely after this or next season. Would be expensive for Rutgers to justify the 8-figure termination payments, and Pike has built up enough political capital to spend two or three more seasons attempting to improve results.
3) Unlikely after this or next season. Pike isn't ready to retire, especially when then would he would forfeit millions in future guaranteed earnings and at the same time owe Rutgers a buyout. At the same time, I do not see another school paying the buyout to bring in Pike, especially in light of recent results.

Odd tidbit that I can't explain: Pike's initial contract is effective March 21, 2016 but wasn't signed by Pike and Hobbs until January 8, 2018. Why was Pike on the jobs for 20 months before a contract could be agreed?
That's for the details and summary FK but I suspect most of us knew this already...the part under Your View is basically it.
 
Waste of a thread......program needs better guards and the 2025 guards provide a more balanced way of play. Things are not THAT bad, they're capable of playing much better.
Better guards? Not disagreeing (cut JMike)but better the Dylan? Oh things are worse. In 2/3 weeks every National publication will pick us up as a laughing stock. When eyes turn to March it will get ugly

The last three draft analysis had Ace potentially out of of the top 5 and definitely not 1 overall. ( Recruiting dead)

Oh it’s bad and it’s on the brink of going absolutely catastrophic.
 
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@Fat Koko i think it’s called a Memorandum of something but it’s basically a small term sheet and then official contracts are drawn up later. Ash was also hired like that
Likely a memorandum of agreement. That is what Greg signed in December 2023. Greg's MOA is legally binding.

Still, strange to me it took Rutgers and Pike 20 months to go from whatever less formal agreement they had when he was hired to a signed contract. Less surprising though after learning Rutgers operated without an athletics apparel contract for more than a year. Makes little sense for a large organization to operate this way, especially one run by a former law school dean.
 
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Likely a memorandum of agreement. That is what Greg signed in December 2023. Greg's MOA is legally binding.

Still, strange to me it took Rutgers and Pike 20 months to go from whatever less formal agreement that had when he was hired to a signed contract. Less surprising though after learning the Rutgers operated without an athletics apparel contract for more than a year. But makes little sense for a large organization to operate this way, especially one run by a former law school dean.
Its Rutgers, when do they do things correctly?
 
Waste of a thread......program needs better guards and the 2025 guards provide a more balanced way of play. Things are not THAT bad, they're capable of playing much better.
I think this program is way past the point of just needing better guards and things change. Hell we have one of the best guards in America right now.
 
I think this program is way past the point of just needing better guards and things change. Hell we have one of the best guards in America right now.
We have 5 guards and only 2 can hit a jump shot on a catch and shoot and make a play on defense (Acuff and Harper)....need more complete guard play to win.
 
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We have 5 guards and only 2 can hit a jump shot on a catch and shoot and make a play on defense (Acuff and Harper)....need more complete guard play to win.
We don't run an offense Hawk and we have a top 3 lottery pick playing guard right now. Better guard play...who is recruiting these better guards that we need. The same guy who recruited all the current ones? Who is calling the offense for the better guard play, the same guy whose offense is awful?
 
Hire Luke Murray from UConn as an assistant, pay him $1mm/yr for 4 years. Throw that out there and see if he takes it. If the athletic dept thinks ciarocca is worth $2mil a year, this would be a no brainer.

He currently makes $750k/yr and has a 3 yr contract
 
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We have 5 guards and only 2 can hit a jump shot on a catch and shoot and make a play on defense (Acuff and Harper)....need more complete guard play to win.
Aren't we getting trucked on the boards? How about needed better big men? Without Harper or Bailey, Rutgers is a glorified D2 team.
 
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Hire Luke Murray from UConn as an assistant, pay him $1mm/yr for 4 years. Throw that out there and see if he takes it. If the athletic dept thinks ciarocca is worth $2mil a year, this would be a no brainer.

He currently makes $750k/yr and has a 3 yr contract
The thing is that Pike is not willing to adapt.
 
The thing is that Pike is not willing to adapt.
I think he is. Just look at the schedule this year and portal decisions. Now thhose things didn’t work out for him at all this season, but he was willing to change.
 
Waste of a thread......program needs better guards and the 2025 guards provide a more balanced way of play. Things are not THAT bad, they're capable of playing much better.
Great points and you are so right. We really have accomplished a lot under Pike (those championships go a long way) and this season wasn't all that important regardless. It's one year. Who cares? Plus, we are coming off such a great run of success and we were due for a down year. People need to stop with the nonsense complaining. None of this could have been foreseen and we have experienced so much joy along the way, that it feels aggregious to expect more. You can't hope for . 500 and the NIT every year. That's just unrealistic. What program out there does that? Sometimes you just gotta accept the step backwards as part of the cost of the reward. It's worth it for all of the highs we have experienced under Pike. I wouldn't trade those titles for anything. Next year will definitely be better and we will be back to mediocre. And if things break right, hopefully we can even get back to the B1G tournament at some point as well. I think we can with those '25 balanced guards. Thank you for bringing that perspective and helping us to feel better!
 
Can't improve without a half court offense that has player and ball movement.Hire a assistant coach from Princeton or UConn.It takes a special case where iso offense somewhat works ,ie,Baker,Young and Harper and they had scoring droughts.
The coaches know offense. C’mon now. The issue is, any 5-player motion isn’t in most of players’ skill sets. That’s not how Pike recruits. Our bigs simply can’t play that way, and even Bailey and Harper are iso players. Geo, Simpson, RHJ, the same.

None of our guys fit Purdue’s style of play, and none of theirs would be successful in ours, for example.

Players and systems aren’t interchangeable.
 
Hire Luke Murray from UConn as an assistant, pay him $1mm/yr for 4 years. Throw that out there and see if he takes it. If the athletic dept thinks ciarocca is worth $2mil a year, this would be a no brainer.

He currently makes $750k/yr and has a 3 yr contract
And our celebrity attendance would increase by 1
 
Waste of a thread......program needs better guards and the 2025 guards provide a more balanced way of play. Things are not THAT bad, they're capable of playing much better.
Guard play doesn't account for the rebounding deficit and the points in the paint. The point differential in the paint each game is equal to or more than the amount of points we are losing by.
 
Pike is going nowhere. Firing a coach after 2 losing seasons is a bad move in all sports. His last 3 years:
1 seed in NIT
missed tourney last year
8-8 so far this year

That’s not getting fired by any school
 
Great points and you are so right. We really have accomplished a lot under Pike (those championships go a long way) and this season wasn't all that important regardless. It's one year. Who cares? Plus, we are coming off such a great run of success and we were due for a down year. People need to stop with the nonsense complaining. None of this could have been foreseen and we have experienced so much joy along the way, that it feels aggregious to expect more. You can't hope for . 500 and the NIT every year. That's just unrealistic. What program out there does that? Sometimes you just gotta accept the step backwards as part of the cost of the reward. It's worth it for all of the highs we have experienced under Pike. I wouldn't trade those titles for anything. Next year will definitely be better and we will be back to mediocre. And if things break right, hopefully we can even get back to the B1G tournament at some point as well. I think we can with those '25 balanced guards. Thank you for bringing that perspective and helping us to feel better!
What championships are you referring to that go a long way, and I would argue that this season was very important and not unimportant because it's only one year, and it's not just one year anyway. Haven't you watched the last few years.
 
Pike has a contract. It has been amended six times.

Pike's initial contract includes three ways he can be terminated. The amendments, which typically extend term and boost salary, alter the termination economics.

1) By university for cause. Briefly, serious misbehavior not related to game results. Termination for cause by Rutgers is extremely unlikely. For example, Mike Rice was terminated without cause despite indisputable video evidence he physically abused his own players. Pike would get nothing if Rutgers fires him for cause.

2) By university without cause. Fired due to terrible game results because university bosses and donors agree the outlook is poor and want the coach gone. Pike gets his 100% of his salary paid bi-weekly. That amount, based on the salary table in the sixth amendment to his contract, totals slightly more than $19 million paid to Pike through 2031. Pike loses all benefits, such as his $12,000 car allowance.

3) By Pike. He resigns to take another job or to retire. This is sometimes called a buyout. According to the sixth amendment of Pike's contract, Pike would owe Rutgers $13 million. This amount ratchets down by $2 million after each season. Some have posted this amount is reduced by 50% if Pat Hobbs is not the athletic director. Pike's initial contract said this 50% reduction ended on May 31, 2024. That means the 50% reduction no longer applies, unless one of the first five amendments to Pike's contract pushed out this date.

My view - Pike gets two or three more seasons of poor results before he is terminated. Hopefully, the debate goes away because the results get better. If Pike does leave, the contract terms will likely be revised to be mutually agreeable to Pike and Rutgers.

1) Being fired for cause at Rutgers would require an act of moral turpitude the seriousness of which would be completely out of character for Pike. Close to zero chance - but few saw the Hobbs "resignation" that was effectively a termination for cause coming.
2) Unlikely after this or next season. Would be expensive for Rutgers to justify the 8-figure termination payments, and Pike has built up enough political capital to spend two or three more seasons attempting to improve results.
3) Unlikely after this or next season. Pike isn't ready to retire, especially when then would he would forfeit millions in future guaranteed earnings and at the same time owe Rutgers a buyout. At the same time, I do not see another school paying the buyout to bring in Pike, especially in light of recent results.

Odd tidbit that I can't explain: Pike's initial contract is effective March 21, 2016 but wasn't signed by Pike and Hobbs until January 8, 2018. Why was Pike on the jobs for 20 months before a contract could be agreed?
Pikiell isn't getting fired after this season
 
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