1. Money
Clearly, money is king in football. It drives everything, from facilities to the coaches and players a school is able to get. What most people probably don’t know though is that most college athletic departments operate at a deficit. That means they spend more money than they make year in and year out. In 2014, only 24 of 128 FBS programs actually made money with their athletic department.
Florida State is one of the 104 teams that don’t make a profit off of their athletics. Rumors have flown that part of the reason Fisher is seriously looking to leave FSU is because of the lack of facilities. He’s asked for a $60 million football-only building, and has been refused.
Texas A&M, on the other hand, is one of the 24 schools that actually make money with their athletic department. In fact, Texas A&M made more money than any other college athletic department in 2016-2017. They made $194.3 million last year; besides being tops in the country, that’s more than any college athletic department has made ever. In the next couple of years the Aggies will most likely become the first athletic department to ever make $200 million or more.
If the reports are true, Texas A&M is about to make Jimbo Fisher one of the top four highest paid coaches in college football, up there with Nick Saban, Dabo Swinney, and Urban Meyer. And here’s a fun nugget: Texas A&M plays both Clemson and Alabama in the first month of 2018.