Around the SB Nation: reaction to Mickey Andrews' announced retirement

Colorado is losing their top-ranked player.

This is worth watching. Currently, Colorado doesn’t have the funds to buy out the Hawkinses. But Scott is not the first player to hit the eject button, and his departure may be a catalyst for more of the younger players (as well as recruits) to find ways off the SS Nepotism. With the level of discontent, there’s a chance that the university can convince their big-bucks players to pony up for a coaching change.

But if they can’t do that, Colorado may be in a death spiral. Attendance is down and football funds are shrinking. Without a buyout, it’ll be up to Hawkins to get things turned around, and recent press conferences don’t give much reason to believe that it’ll happen. (He’s talking like a man on the last mile already.) If they already don’t have the funds, the last thing they can afford is to lose more revenue streams.

There’s always the Brian Kelly scenario: if they can establish rumors of a potential Kelly (or name of equivalent VHT status), then they might be able to get the bucks to make it happen.

But the other thing is this: do you remember last year how we all dreaded Fulmer’s $6 million dollar buyout because UT was losing money due to low attendance? Then MH made an offhand reference to an emergency fund that they had built up for this very reason. That emergency fund was $7 millionish at the time, which was enough to cover Fulmer’s buyout and even assist in another buyout if that had been an issue. (The fund was initiated because of the basketball buyouts.)

It’s probably worth remembering the foresight that Hamilton had. If they couldn’t buy Fulmer out and the attendance numbers had continued to shrink, Tennessee could very well have been Colorado, but one year earlier. And that off of one of the best coaches in program history.