TCU’s board is set to gather this week, and Sonny Dykes’ future is part of the conversation.
The meeting comes in the wake of chancellor Daniel Pullin’s resignation and Victor Boschini’s return, and the trustees are expected to tackle a range of issues, including the state of the school’s highest-paid employee. The budget is on the agenda, too, and that matters because it shapes what the athletic department can and cannot do as college sports keeps shifting under the weight of athlete compensation.
That shift has made life harder for schools trying to decide whether to move on from a football coach. These days, firing a coach is no longer just about paying the buyout. The players are on the bill now, too.
TCU is hardly alone in that spot. It sits in the same kind of bind as Kansas, Clemson, Colorado, California and other Power Four programs whose fan bases are tired of waiting for the turnaround. In this new setup, coaches who might have been shown the door in the past can sometimes buy themselves another year or two.
Dykes is living in that reality. TCU extended his contract in the spring, adding years in a move that lowered the buyout figure, which has become a constant talking point. The school has money, but not money that is just sitting around ready to be spent on a coach’s exit.
TCU’s endowment is $2.9 billion, up 80 percent over the last five years, according to the Business Journal. But university leaders have preferred not to dip into it beyond the standard payout used to cover annual expenses. It is not an ATM for a five-star quarterback from the transfer portal, and it is not there to cover a coach’s buyout.
At the same time, TCU has been pouring money into the future. Enrollment and tuition have both gone up over the last 10 years, while the university has taken on major expenses tied to construction across a growing campus. It also added a medical school and has been pushing toward Carnegie R1 status, the designation for schools that award doctoral degrees and have “very high research activity.”
That medical school is still years from paying off, and the R1 push is expensive, slow and not guaranteed. TCU and Wake Forest are the only two schools in the P4 that are not R1.
All of that is happening while college sports has moved into a pay-for-play model with virtually no restrictions, and the deals are private. Coaching salaries, meanwhile, have climbed from absurd to offensive.
The athletic department has its own budget, but it still lives under the same financial roof as the rest of the university. So if TCU were to fire Dykes, it would not just be the buyout. It would also mean paying the next coach and covering the transition costs for the staff that comes with him.
That is a steep price for a school to pay when the football program is also supposed to be one of its biggest public-facing assets. If the team is not helping the university move forward, it can start to feel like a drag instead.
Florida State already made that call with Mike Norvell, absorbing his $50 million buyout.
For TCU, the football picture is not getting easier on Saturday. The Horned Frogs host Kansas State at 1 p.m. in Fort Worth in a matchup between two teams trying to avoid last place in the Big 12. The temperature is expected to be in the mid-60s, but the forecast for the game is “Depressing with a 90 percent chance of booing.”
TCU is a 10-point favorite and could move to 4-5, leaving it one win short of bowl eligibility with two games left. Still, the game itself is not the headline. The bigger story is Dykes’ job security.
The school does not want to fire him, and money is a major reason why. He also still has people inside the program who believe in him.
Dykes can point to the new college football landscape and argue that good teams now lose two or three games in a successful season. He can also say his team is “close,” with five one-score losses to back that up, even if the offense has been the main problem.
And now there is one more factor in his favor: starting next season, the playoff field expands from 12 to 24 teams, a move announced Monday.
All of it is likely to be part of the discussion this week, when TCU’s board weighs whether moving on from Dykes is worth the cost.
In Other News...
TCU's Quarterback Debate Just Got Harder To Ignore
Sonny Dykes made it clear this week that TCU is at least entertaining a larger role for sophomore quarterback Adam Schobel after the recent stretch from senior Jaden Craig. Schobel has only seen limited action this season, but the conversation around him has sharpened as the Horned Frogs look for a way to get more out of the position without unsettling the offense.
The challenge now is less about whether Schobel has a place in the plan and more about how TCU can use him without inviting the kind of mistakes that can stall drives and shake confidence. For a staff trying to balance the present with Schobels long-term development, the next steps at quarterback suddenly carry a lot more weight than they did a week ago. [Read more 🡒]
TCU May Have Found A Central Texas Pipeline Worth Watching
A growing recruiting connection in Central Texas is starting to look like one worth monitoring for TCU, with Waco University High School emerging as a school the Horned Frogs have made a point to visit. The relationship has been built through campus trips and steady communication between the two coaching staffs, a sign that TCU is trying to stay active in a part of the state where college programs are always looking for an edge.
Waco University has become a more visible stop on the recruiting map, drawing interest from more than 50 colleges as the school uses social media to spotlight its athletes. The talent level is real, too, with players such as Davontrae Kirkland, who is committed to Baylor, and Ro Enriquez, who is committed to Texas Southern, already on college radars. For TCU, the value of that relationship may be less about one player than about establishing itself early in a place that keeps producing attention-worthy prospects. [Read more 🡒]
TCU Gets A Revealing Early Test After Its Fast Offensive Start
TCUs early-season start has offered a useful first look at how the roster is coming together, with returning pieces and newcomers both finding ways to matter in the first two games. Micah Robinson and Brock Harding have been among the most notable contributors, and the Horned Frogs have already shown signs of a group that can space the floor, move the ball and get quality looks from the outside.
UL Monroe now brings a different kind of test, one that should say plenty about how real those early habits are. The Warhawks can create offense through guards Dayjaun Anderson and Quran McPherson, so this matchup will give TCU a chance to see whether its defensive pressure travels as well as its shot-making has so far. [Read more 🡒]