Contract details: Chad Lunsford gets four years, $1 million buyout at Georgia Southern

With the 2017 football season coming to a close for the Georgia Southern Eagles last Saturday, newly-minted head coach Chad Lunsford was officially hired as the school’s 14th head coach in the program’s history and signed a formal contract days later.

That contract has become public record. We’ve obtained a copy here at Underdog Dynasty, and now release its details to you dear readers and fans.

Lunsford’s agreement with the school is a four-year deal, set to end on Dec. 31, 2021, worth $650,000 annually in base pay before potential incentives, up $150,000 from Tyson Summers’ previous contract with the school.

Much like Summers’ contract, the deal states that includes Lunsford has a duty to report all employment offers to athletic director Tom Kleinlein before moving forward with any negotiations. This will of course become important should he become a hot commodity. The “duty to report offers” was added after Willie Fritz left for Tulane in 2015.

Lunsford’s contract is also loaded with potential bonuses, including:

• A one-time bonus of $5,000 should Lunsford keep his team’s Academic Performance Rate (APR) at 985 or more.
• A $6,000 bonus if the team wins seven games. Adding on to the win clauses, Lunsford would receive an another $2,000 should the team win eight games, and $2,000 more if the Eagles win nine. There’s a $5,000 bonus should Georgia Southern defeat a school from a Power 5 conference, and Lunsford would earn $10,000 for a Sun Belt Conference title.
• In the section labeled ‘Appearances’, the coach receives $5,000 should GS make it to a bowl game, $25,000 if the Eagles finish as the highest ranking Group of 5 team, $75,000 if the school makes the College Football Playoff and $150,000 for winning the FBS National Championship (hey, gotta dream big right).
• There’s a $5,000 bonus if Lunsford is named Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year, and another $5,000 should he be nominated for a National Coach of the Year award.
• The buyout for the deal on both sides is set at $1 million, to be prorated should Lunsford leave for another coaching position within the parameters or if Georgia Southern were to terminate him. This is slightly lower than Summers’ initial $1.2 million buyout, and means it would cost GS roughly $750,000 if he’s let go at the end of his first season, $500,000 at the end of his second and so forth. If Lunsford takes another gig he’d owe the school those same amounts.
• Lunsford will additionally receive a membership to Forest Heights Country Club in Statesboro, an automobile allowance of $6,000 and $15,000 in moving expenses if he relocates.

The contract is pretty straightforward from thereon, with all of the details remaining mostly the same from Tyson Summers’ contract with the school.

With nine months until the start of the 2018 season, hopefully Lunsford quickly fills out the remainder of his staff and hits the recruiting trail hard for next season.