The world of college football has been absolutely flooded by the firings of head coaches, with LSU's Brian Kelly receiving the ax.
As the LSU Tigers look for their replacement, alongside the Penn State Nittany Lions, Florida Gators, Arkansas Razorbacks, and more, people are starting to realize that the current model of firings and hirings isn't sustainable for a majority of collegiate programs.
Peter Burns, an SEC Network anchor for ESPN, thinks he may have found the solution to fix the disaster that the current system has become.
College coaching contracts should mirror the NFL
Basically, Burns suggested that head coaches and athletic departments should agree to contracts with a signing bonus, a "minimal" annual salary, and an array of bonuses that could increase or decrease the coaches' salaries on a yearly basis.
Burns used LSU as the prime candidate to roll out this model of head coaching contracts, mainly because the Tigers had to pay upwards of $54 million just to get Kelly out of town, similar to the Nittany Lions' paycheck to former head coach James Franklin.
With the structure suggested by Burns, buyouts would be capped at $10 million, but a head coach could make anywhere from $1 million to $20 million in a given season, depending on how far they led their team and their overall record.
Burns doesn't believe it is sustainable for college programs to continuously fire head coaches simply because they haven't won a conference title or a National Championship, subsequently shelling out hundreds of millions of dollars over a stretch of time.
It's hard to argue that Burns is wrong, as schools like LSU, Texas A&M, and more continue to fire their coaches after just a few seasons, and then continue to hire new head coaches for even larger salaries.
So, as the Tigers continue looking for possible candidates for Kelly's replacement, the program might want to keep in mind taking the first step toward changing the way that head coach contracts work at the collegiate level.