Well, if you didn’t think the situation on the Plains revolving around Auburn Tigers head coach Bryan Harsin could get any more intense, it has.
With each passing day, while the head coach was on vacation out of the country, speculation ran wild about when the Board of Trustees and outgoing school president Jay Gogue might make the move. He was expected back on Wednesday, the day before the SEC coaches meet in Birmingham, Alabama.
No move was made on Wednesday and 247Sports’ analyst Brandon Marcello reports that Harsin will indeed be in attendance at the meeting. That is an interesting development.
As questions about his future swirl, #Auburn coach Bryan Harsin still plans to attend the SEC's regularly-scheduled meeting of head coaches Thursday morning in Birmingham, sources told @247sports earlier this evening.
— Brandon Marcello (@bmarcello) February 10, 2022
While the Auburn football coach is planning on being there, did the Auburn Board of Trustees put in a new policy to relieve him of his duties?
We found out on Wednesday that a new policy went into effect on Feb. 8, just one day prior to Bryan Harsin’s expected return to Auburn.
The university conducts a variety of investigations and reviews in order to ensure compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and policies and to otherwise ensure the integrity and proper functioning of the university. These reviews may be conducted by university personnel or outside entities engaged by the university. Employee cooperation in these reviews is essential and mandatory.
Here is the key part of the new policy, “Violations of this policy may result in disciplinary action up to and including termination.” It appears they have put this into play to fire Harsin for cause, which would avoid having to pay his buy-out. Harsin would be given a buy-out of $18 million if he was fired without cause.
One thing is for sure, this could get real messy with lawyers involved if they proceed to terminate their head coach. All signs point to when not if it happens. Until it actually does, it is business as usual for the football team.