What Gamecocks AD Ray Tanner said about Will Muschamp’s lowered buyout

South Carolina athletics director Ray Tanner spoke publicly for the first time since it was revealed that Will Muschamp’s buyout was negotiated to a lump sum of $12.9 million, appearing on 107.5 The Game on Wednesday afternoon.

Tanner explained what the process was like and how the two sides came to the agreement.

“There were mutual conversations on both sides with coach Muschamp’s camp and myself and the people that were working with me here at the university to get to a point that we could reduce the total buyout package,” Tanner said. “If you look at the contract, it gave us an opportunity to pay him monthly until the end of the contract. It was an opportunity for him to take a lump sum in the current state of affairs in this country.”

When South Carolina fired Muschamp in November 2020, it was set to owe him 75% of his salary for the rest of his deal — a total of around $15.3 million spread out through the end of 2024.

Tanner believes that the negotiated buyout agreed upon between Muschamp and USC is the best for both parties.

“There were just a lot of different points to the conversation that we had that benefited us and also benefited coach Muschamp. We came to an agreement that was a reduced buyout,” he said.

Muschamp’s contract contained no mitigation language, used in some coaches’ contracts, which would have subtracted his salary from whatever his next job paid from his buyout total. Georgia coach Kirby Smart announced Wednesday that Muschamp has officially joined UGA’s staff.

The buyout was also more than $2 million more than had been reported after a contract amendment cutting Muschamp’s pay was never signed and did not go into affect, as the pay cut was supposed to fund a raise for an assistant who then left the team.

Tanner said after Muschamp’s dismissal that he had had discussions with Muschamp seeking an “amicable” settlement to the buyout. In a settlement signed Dec. 31 and released by the university on Jan. 22, Muschamp agreed to a reduced total of $12.9 million, paid out in one lump sum right away.

As part of the settlement, both sides fully released each other from all claims and promised not to sue each other. Muschamp also agreed that he will not “actively recruit or encourage” any current student-athletes at South Carolina to enter the transfer portal or transfer to another school, “through direct or indirect communication.”

The size of Muschamp’s buyout has been heavily scrutinized, especially given the massive revenue drop the Gamecocks athletics department is expected to face as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tanner spoke Wednesday about where the money will come from. However, he did not provide specifics.

“We were 15 years in a row where we were fiscally responsible in a way that we operated in the black. COVID threw us an absolute curve, slider mixture where we just couldn’t do it without football attendance. So we had to pivot and do a lot of things differently,” Tanner said.

“You go back to coach Muschamp’s contract... that doesn’t affect any of our individual sports programs or anything we do in the athletic department. But certainly the buyout will fall back to athletics.”