TCU’s board of trustees is set to meet this week with plenty on the agenda, and Sonny Dykes sits near the center of it.
The school’s highest-paid employee is under the microscope as the university sorts through a new financial reality, one where athletic departments are being asked to absorb costs that used to belong almost entirely to coaching salaries and buyouts. At TCU, that conversation is happening while the board also deals with the resignation of chancellor Daniel Pullin and the return of Victor Boschini.
The money piece matters. TCU extended Dykes’ contract in the spring, a move that added years and lowered a buyout figure that has become a constant talking point. The school has the resources to do plenty of things, but not with money that is simply sitting around waiting to be spent.
TCU’s endowment is $2.9 billion, up 80 percent over the last five years, according to the Business Journal. But university leadership has preferred to leave that money alone beyond the normal payout that helps cover annual expenses. That endowment is not meant to function like a checking account for a buyout or a transfer-portal splash.
And the broader financial picture is not exactly light. Over the last decade, TCU has taken on major costs tied to campus growth, including building projects, a medical school and the push for Carnegie R1 classification, the designation for schools that award doctoral degrees and have “very high research activity.”
The medical school is still years from paying off, and the R1 chase is expensive, slow and not guaranteed. TCU and Wake Forest are the only two schools in the Power Four that are not R1.
All of that is unfolding at the same time college sports has shifted into a pay-for-play model with few restrictions, and the money involved is private. Coaching salaries, meanwhile, have climbed from absurd to offensive.
That is why a coaching change is no longer a simple decision. Firing a coach means paying the buyout, then paying the next coach, then covering the transition costs that come with a staff overhaul. For TCU, Kansas, Colorado, Clemson and other schools in similar spots, that is a heavy lift.
There is also the larger concern: whether the football program, the university’s most visible marketing arm, is helping the school move forward or dragging it down.
Florida State already made that kind of call by firing Mike Norvell and absorbing his $50 million buyout.
For Dykes, though, there are still two things working in his favor. One is the money. The other is the football landscape itself.
TCU’s game against Kansas State on Saturday in Fort Worth is hardly a marquee event. The Horned Frogs and Wildcats are both trying to avoid last place in the Big 12, and the forecast for the matchup is “Depressing with a 90 percent chance of booing.” TCU is a 10-point favorite and can move to 4-5, leaving it one win short of bowl eligibility with two games left.
The game itself is not the draw. The conversation around Dykes is.
He can point to the new college football reality and argue that good teams now lose two or three games in a successful season. He can also lean on the fact that his team has been close, at least by the record: five losses by one score. That said, the offense has been a problem.
And now there is one more layer to the argument. Starting next season, the playoff field will expand from 12 to 24 teams, a move announced Monday.
So as TCU’s board meets this week, the question is not just about football. It is about whether moving on from Dykes is worth the price in a new era where almost everything costs more.
In Other News...
Lance Leipold Is Suddenly Part Of A Debate Kansas Fans Hate
Lance Leipolds rise at Kansas made him one of the feel-good stories in the Big 12, the steady hand who helped pull the program out of years of frustration and back into relevance. But after the Jayhawks recent slide, his name has drifted into a conversation Kansas fans would rather avoid, the kind that turns a coachs early turnaround into a question about how much patience remains when the results start to slip.
It is not just Kansas facing that kind of scrutiny. Around the league, athletic directors are weighing similar pressure points with Deion Sanders at Colorado and Sonny Dykes at TCU, where booster and donor expectations can quickly shape the conversation around a coachs future. For Kansas, the uncomfortable part is that Leipolds success made the standard higher, and now the next stretch may say as much about the programs direction as it does about the coach himself. [Read more 🡒]
Darryn Peterson Is Giving Kansas Fans A Reason To Dream Big
Darryn Peterson is already giving Kansas fans a familiar kind of hope, the sort that starts to feel bigger every time he steps onto an NBA floor. The former Jayhawk rookie has scored at least 20 points in three straight games for the Utah Jazz, and he has done it with the kind of scoring burst that made him such an appealing name in Lawrence in the first place.
Peterson has gone back-to-back with 25 or more points, capped by a career-high 26 against the Minnesota Timberwolves, and he also led Utah in scoring against the Miami Heat. For a fan base always looking for the next great Kansas star to emerge on the pro stage, his early season line of 15.7 points, four rebounds and 3.8 assists per game is the kind of start that keeps the dream alive. [Read more 🡒]
Jamal Crawford's Role In Tyran Stokes' Kansas Hype Runs Deep
Tyran Stokes connection to Kansas has been building for years, long before he arrived on campus as a freshman. One of the biggest reasons is Jamal Crawford, who has been in Stokes corner since he was in eighth grade and stayed involved through his time at Rainier Beach High School, where Crawford served as an assistant coach. For a young player trying to navigate the jump to college basketball, having a former NBA guard with 20 seasons of experience in his orbit has given Stokes a steady source of guidance and support.
Crawford has also made it clear why he believes Stokes can make an impact, publicly praising his competitiveness and energy. That kind of backing matters for Kansas, where the hype around a freshman can build quickly but usually means more when it comes from someone who has seen the game at the highest level. Stokes now brings that long-running relationship with him into his first season in Lawrence, with Crawfords influence adding another layer to the buzz surrounding his arrival. [Read more 🡒]