Jack Graham

CSU just lost a great coach, more than $3.8 million in value … and a big chunk of our heart. It didn't have to happen.

The contract we negotiated with Jim McElwain required that, if he were to leave, he would pay CSU $7.5 million within 30 days of his resignation. Very few schools — if any — would take on that challenge.

We had Coach Mac for a decade. In return, he got a guarantee of over $15 million of public money over 10 years. If CSU fired him, we owed him $7.5 million. To take that kind of risk, we had to have a "guarantee" Mac was here for the long term. That is why he had an equally onerous buy-out clause.

Mac could lead us to a Top 25 ranking — like he did this year — and raise the visibility of CSU across the nation. He is a leader, a role model and a terrific family man. An asset to the Fort Collins community. If not for a decision made by Tony Frank on June 6, Coach Mac would still be a Ram.

The university is seeking to gloss over our loss by saying it was able to negotiate a record-level $7 million breakup fee. The settlement Frank reached with Florida is $5 million paid over six, or more, years — not $7 million. Florida agreed to pay CSU $2 million of that when we play the Gators in Gainesville some time after 2017.

The CSU athletic department's business model already anticipates a payment of this kind from a university like Florida. Before I was fired, we were negotiating with Michigan for a similar game and payment (like the Alabama game we played in 2013). If not Florida, we would play someone else for similar money. This cannot be counted as part of the settlement.

If you invest the $5 million we will be paid over six years, we would have approximately $5.7 million at the end of the sixth year. If you invested the $7.5 million the contract required Florida to pay within 30 days, we would have approximately $9.5 million after six years. The negotiated settlement cost us more than $3.8 million. The statement that CSU "stood strong" in the negotiation is not accurate. They got their heads handed to them.

Of even greater importance is why was CSU even negotiating the breakup fee? McElwain's employment contract states he is required to pay CSU $7.5 million by early next month. There is no ambiguity.

Here's why. Immediately following the 2013 football season, I renegotiated and extended McElwain's contract. I fully expected a very successful 2014 football season and that a number of major universities would try to hire him away from us. It was important to get this done before the start of the 2014 season, before he was being solicited by other schools. With this timing, the contract terms would be far more rational.

The terms were as stated above:

Mac and I agreed he would receive the highest level of job security in the form of a 10-year "no cut contract" that would guarantee him greater than $15 million over the life of the agreement, with an opportunity to earn substantially more if he performed well. And if we fired him before the end of the agreement, we would have to pay him $7.5 million. The trade-off was Mac had to agree to a $7.5 million break-up fee if he left for another university.

Mac's attorney sought to have the breakup fee not apply to certain universities (Alabama and other similar schools). I refused. Our goal was to significantly reduce if not eliminate that risk. It made no sense for us to guarantee more than $15 million of public money if he was to retain the right to leave when he was very successful — it was under those conditions that we wanted to keep him! Would it make sense to give him this right but require us to pay him the full amount of his contract if he was delivering mediocre or poor results? Obviously not.

Mac and I agreed to these contract terms in early June. Tony Frank's signature was required to complete the process. On June 6, I scheduled a "ceremonial signing meeting" in Frank's office. During that meeting, Mac's attorney rhetorically asked (remember, the deal was done at this point) whether Tony would agree to work with Mac to reduce or eliminate the break-up fee if a "dream job" such as Alabama was available to him.

Tony promised to do this. I was shocked.

This gave Mac and his agent permission to leave Mac "on the market" for schools like Florida, Michigan and Nebraska. Had Frank not made the promise, it is highly unlikely Florida would have sought to hire Mac knowing it would have to pay the full $7.5 million — they made clear they could not afford it plus $6.2 million to the coach they just fired.

Knowing he had made an unqualified commitment to CSU, Mac would likely not have listened to offers from other schools — that is who he is. It was clear to Mac and me that he was "off the market" until Tony contradicted the intention and spirit of our agreement with his promise to help Mac secure his "dream job." This promise gave significant negotiating leverage to Florida and McElwain.

For the fans, donors and alums — this is a real loss to our school. We did not need to lose nor should we have lost Jim McElwain. No one is celebrating a "record buyout" with the lost opportunity of the continued excellence that Coach Mac brought to CSU. I will miss him.

Jack Graham is a former athletic director at CSU, a former Rams quarterback and a successful businessman.