Though the going rate for college football coaches seems to reset every few years, the sport changed forever on Dec. 1, 2017 when Texas A&M agreed to pay Jimbo Fisher $75 million over 10 years.

It wasn’t just the size of the salary or length of the deal that made it an outlier. It was the fact that Texas A&M was willing to commit such massive money to a coach who was not exactly a slam dunk to make the Aggies a national championship-level program.

Yes, Fisher had won a title at Florida State in 2013 with arguably one of the best college football teams of all time. But winning a championship at Florida State, where it has been done before, is not the same as doing it at Texas A&M, where they’ve finished a season in the top 10 just six times since 1970. Plus, Fisher’s program at Florida State had been somewhat on the decline for three straight years, exposing his offensive rigidity and refusal to embrace analytics on things like fourth-down conversions.

Though it’s still extremely early in Fisher’s tenure, his 13-7 overall record at Texas A&M hasn’t exactly made the traditional SEC powers nervous. But because every dollar of his contract is guaranteed — that’s $60.6 million at the end of this regular season — he’s under no administrative pressure for the foreseeable future.

No matter what happens, Texas A&M and Fisher are stuck with each other for at least the next handful of years. Maybe that will be a good thing if Fisher starts beating Alabama and LSU regularly and contending for the SEC championship. But for now, that contract makes Fisher look massively overpaid.

He’s not the only one, though. Given the constant churn of the coaching carousel, the short supply of proven winners out there to hire and the pressure on administrators to keep successful coaches, plenty of schools are getting taken to the cleaners in contract negotiations these days. Here are the eight worst contracts this year in college football, :

1. Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M

Total 2019 compensation: $7.5 million

Contract end date: Dec. 31, 2027

Buyout: $60.6 million

Why the school paid so much: Since joining the SEC in 2012, Texas A&M’s answer to every problem has been to throw money at it. So when it was time to jettison Kevin Sumlin, who earned a hefty $10.4 million buyout himself with no offset provision if he took a new job, the Aggies were going to do whatever it took to get a coach with “national champion” on his résumé. And, clearly, it took a lot. For Texas A&M, though, just being able to pull Fisher away from a blueblood program in Florida State was an achievement in and of itself for a school that enjoys genuflecting in its financial strength as much as it does winning on the field.

Why it’s a bad contract: Massively overrated to start this season, Texas A&M will finish 7-5 if its remaining games go as expected. That means Fisher’s first two years won’t be much different record-wise than Sumlin’s final two. Though recruiting has gone well for Fisher, there’s a legitimate question about whether his best days as an offensive innovator/quarterback guru are behind him. When you look at the evolution of programs like Alabama and LSU, Fisher’s pro style system looks like a relic and relies heavily on a complicated playbook that not all quarterbacks can handle. As we saw late in his tenure at Florida State and early this season, Fisher’s offense falls apart without a great offensive line. If Fisher can’t evolve the way other top programs have, Texas A&M will be paying an above-market rate mostly for the national championship he won with another school.

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2. Dana Holgorsen, Houston

Total 2019 compensation: $3.7 million

Contract end date: Dec. 31, 2023

Buyout: $13.2 million

Why the school paid so much: Few institutions in all of college sports have a higher hubris-to-accomplishment ratio than Houston. The Cougars think they belong in a Power Five league and the way to get there is dominating the American Athletic Conference, no matter how unrealistic that might be. So when the school dumped Major Applewhite after just two seasons, the Cougars and megabooster Tilman Fertitta were determined to spend big on a splashy hire — and what better way to grab headlines than pulling a coach away from a Power Five school? Though Holgorsen wanted out of West Virginia badly, landing a 5-year, $20 million contract in a city he likes living in is a pretty nice soft landing.

Why it’s a bad contract: It seems highly unlikely Holgorsen will ever take the Cougars where they want to go. Though Houston has good recruiting geography and attractive facilities, it’s not going to consistently recruit like a Power Five team unless or until it’s in a Power Five league. That means it’s going to be hard to create a real talent gap with the rest of the AAC, which has a number of strong programs including UCF, Memphis, Temple and Navy. Holgorsen is a good coach with a solid track record, but he’s never finished a season higher than ranked No. 17. And for all the talk about Houston’s potential, it’s only won two conference titles in the past 20 years. That doesn’t sound like a combination primed to live up to a contract that busted the market for Group of Five teams.

3. Willie Taggart, Florida State

Total 2019 compensation: $5 million

Contract end date: Jan 31, 2024

Buyout: $17.7 million

Why the school paid so much: When Fisher left for Texas A&M, Taggart seemed like the obvious choice to replace him. Taggart had turned around two smaller programs at Western Kentucky and South Florida, and particularly in Tampa had shown a strong ability to recruit in the talent-rich I-4 corridor. The problem was that Taggart already had a good job at Oregon, and no matter how badly he wanted to return to his home state, he wasn’t going to leave after one year without getting a significant raise. With Oregon reportedly offering around $4 million a year to stay, Florida State had no choice but to pony up.

Why it’s a bad contract: The Taggart era has been a major disappointment, and this already looks like a situation where the school would consider moving on if not for the massive buyout he’s owed. Though many of the early problems can be traced to roster erosion in Fisher’s final years, the Seminoles missed a bowl game last season for the first time since 1981 and have looked unprepared and poorly coached on several occasions. Though wins over Louisville and N.C. State recently seemed like a step forward, Florida State got humiliated by Clemson 45-14 on Oct. 12, showing how big the gap remains. Taggart also hasn't exactly set the world on fire in recruiting, which seemed like a given when he got the job.

4. Jim Harbaugh, Michigan

Total 2019 compensation: $7.5 million

Contract end date: Jan. 10, 2022

Buyout: $11.688 million

Why the school paid so much: It’s hard to remember now, but most people outside of Michigan were skeptical that Harbaugh would even be willing to return to college football in 2014 given how successful he’d been in the NFL. That’s why a desperate Michigan couldn’t mess around and go cheap. In order to make a real run at Harbaugh, there was no choice but to offer a landmark contract. Now, however, that deal has just two seasons remaining on it, which is almost unheard of in big-time college sports. It will be interesting to see if either side seriously engages on an extension and what that might look like, given the underwhelming results so far.

Why it’s a bad contract: Though Harbaugh has been far from a disaster, there was no ambiguity about the expectations when he took the job. And those expectations have not been met. The reason you pay a coach $7.5 million a year is to contend for national titles, win conference titles and beat your biggest rivals. Five years in, Harbaugh hasn’t done any of that, although he came awful close in 2016. Had one spot of a football changed by two inches against Ohio State that year, Harbaugh might have won the Big Ten and been in the College Football Playoff. But without those signature wins, it’s hard to justify the contract.

5. Kirby Smart, Georgia

Total 2019 compensation: $6.87 million

Contract end date: Dec. 31, 2024

Buyout: $24.24 million

Why the school paid so much: Smart’s contract has changed significantly in a relatively short period of time. When he was initially hired as a first-time head coach, Smart’s deal with Georgia averaged around $3.75 million per year, which was slightly less than his predecessor Mark Richt was making. But after Smart’s second season when he led Georgia to the SEC championship and within a whisker of winning the College Football Playoff, the school locked him up to a seven-year, $49 million deal. That essentially brings him in line contractually with Auburn’s Gus Malzahn, who has also won an SEC title and made a national championship game.

Why it’s a bad contract: The largesse of Smart’s deal is tied almost exclusively to the market rate established by his peers, not the demand for him specifically. In other words, if Georgia had told Smart that it would pay him $5 million a year with a $10 million buyout — take it or leave it — would there be another college program or NFL team willing to pay him more or offer him a better situation? Probably not. Smart is a Georgia guy who is uniquely positioned at his alma mater to capitalize on an in-state talent base that’s good enough to win the national title. And yet if he doesn’t deliver that in the next few years — remember, Richt’s record through his first 3½ seasons was just as good as Smart’s — this will look like a big overpay.

6. Kirk Ferentz, Iowa

Total 2019 compensation: $4.8 million

Contract end date: Jan. 31, 2026

Buyout: $21.571 million

Why the school paid so much: It’s not written into state law that Ferentz will get a new contract every few years that extends out another decade, but it sure seems that way. This is Ferentz’s 21st season at Iowa, and he’s signed for six more, which means he’d be 70 when this current deal expires. Ferentz got his first big deal early in his tenure after three straight top-10 finishes as Iowa had to fight off significant interest from the NFL. They gave him a 10-year extension after the Hawkeyes went 11-2 in 2009 with a trip to the Orange Bowl. And then after 2015, when Iowa went 12-0 in the regular season and nearly beat Michigan State for the Big Ten title and a Playoff spot, he got another 10-year deal that essentially locks him in for the rest of his career.

Why it’s a bad contract: Just on principle, a 10-year contract for an older coach who is not competing at an elite level on a regular basis is a bad idea. Though Ferentz has certainly had some great moments at Iowa, it has basically been a middle-of-the-pack Big Ten program for the last decade with an occasional pop of national relevance. That’s OK for now, but if there ever comes a point where it looks like Ferentz is slipping, his contract may make it prohibitive to wind down his tenure amicably.

7. Chad Morris, Arkansas

Total 2019 compensation: $4 million

Contract end date: Dec. 31, 2023

Buyout: $10.004 million

Why the school paid so much: Arkansas was in a tough spot after firing Bret Bielema in 2017. After Gus Malzahn rebuffed a big-money offer to stay at Auburn, Arkansas was pretty far down the list of desirable jobs in a year with a lot of coaching changes. Not only did that limit Arkansas’ pool of candidates but it created leverage for someone like Morris, who was making a little more than $2 million a year at SMU and didn't necessarily need to take on a major rebuilding job in the SEC unless he was going to get a huge bump in pay.

Why it’s a bad contract: Plucking a successful coach from a Group of Five program is always a bit of a gamble for a Power Five school because you just don’t know if it will translate. But in Morris’ case, he hadn’t even been particularly successful at SMU with a 14-22 overall record. Though in fairness the team had improved each year, going 7-5 in his final season there, Morris’ reputation was largely formed due to his work as Clemson’s offensive coordinator. So far, though, it’s been a debacle at Arkansas as he’s 0-12 in the SEC (4-15 overall), has yet to beat a Power Five team and has lost to the likes of North Texas, Colorado State and San Jose State.