How Recent History & The Market Effect Shane Beamer's New Contract

Reports indicate that South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer could be in line for a new deal, so how would the job market and past school negotiations affect the terms?

When looking at his overall job performance and how much he's making right now, few will probably question the details of a new deal for head coach Shane Beamer. However, figuring out the term length and dollar amount can cause quite a headache.

So to help sort through all this, I used the recent history of contract negotiations from South Carolina and the current contracts of other relevant SEC head football coaches to calculate what a new contract might offer.

Comparison To Will Muschamp

To get an idea of what South Carolina might offer coach Beamer, I followed the timeline of former Gamecock head Will Muschamp and the contracts he received from the school, specifically his first two contracts.

When hired back in December of 2015, Muschamp received a five-year deal that paid him 3 million dollars annually, which increased by 100,000 dollars every year after his first season.

After going 9-4 with an Outback Bowl win over Michigan in his second season, Muschamp received an extension and raise from the school that would span the next six seasons and pay him 28.2 million dollars total.

The SEC Job Market

Another essential factor to consider with any contract negotiation is how the relative job market could set a specific floor and ceiling.

To keep everything consistent, I took the average of the contracts from second and third-year SEC coaches heading into the 2022 season. For this reason, I excluded Beamer's contract to not serve as an outlier and kept Bryan Harsin's contract in the group, even though Auburn fired him.

When crunching the numbers, the average contract for these respective coaches was a 5.16-year deal for 5.05 million dollars annually.

Comparison To Sam Pittman

If there's one SEC coach that fans could use as a barometer to see what coach Beamer might get, it's Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman. Pittman, like Beamer, had never been an offensive or defensive coordinator or head coach in major college football and went to what he deems his dream job in Fayetteville.

He received a 5-year, $25 million contract this past June after Arkansas saw a massive jump in year two, winning nine games, including an Outback Bowl victory over Penn State.

When looking at these relative comparisons and the job market, it's safe to say Beamer is about to get a sweet deal down the road.

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