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Alabama coach Anthony Grant meets the media after his team's 63-48 loss to Texas A&M on Feb. 20, 2014 in College Station, Texas. (AP photo)
Stop me if you've heard this one before. That school won't fire that coach this year because of his buyout.
Some people said that about Auburn and Gene Chizik during their disastrous 2012 football season because
The school is still paying its former coach not to coach, but things have worked out pretty well so far under Gus Malzahn.
Some people now are saying the same thing about Alabama and Anthony Grant as the Crimson Tide basketball team staggers toward the finish of what could be the program's worst season in three decades. At least.
Coming off an ugly loss at Texas A&M and heading into Saturday night's home game against Missouri, Alabama has lost six of its last seven games to fall to 10-16 overall and 4-9 in the SEC. There's no hope left for this season, and there's no guarantee that next year will be significantly better.
Despite the current state of the program, according to one school of thought, Alabama will give Grant another year because of - all together now - his buyout.
It is something for AD Bill Battle to consider as he faces the first major personnel decision of his tenure, but the numbers are not as daunting as they look on the surface.
If Alabama fires Grant next month, it'll owe him $1 million for each of the five years remaining on his contract, or $5 million total. His annual compensation if he returns is $1.9 million.
It's obvious that the administration put too much financial faith in Grant too soon on too little evidence, but it's a little late now to debate the wisdom of the original contract and its two revisions.
Paying a coach $5 million not to coach, in addition to paying his successor, sounds like a lot of money, but there are details more relevant to the discussion and the decision.
Alabama wouldn't owe Grant that large lump sum. It would owe him equal monthly payments through the term of the contract, which runs to March 31, 2019. Break down $5 million over five years, and it comes to $83,333.33 a month for 60 months.
Monthly buyout payments are standard in coaching contracts, as is the provision that Grant's buyout would be reduced by the amount of money he would make at his next job, and he would get another job.
It's up to Battle and the administration to be sound stewards of the budget, but at a school as flush financially as Alabama, a decision on a coach's future shouldn't be made primarily on money. It should be made on where the program is and where the powers that be think it's going.
Bottom line: Alabama can afford to fire Grant. It would be much more beneficial to do a cost-benefit analysis of bringing him back.