"Former Aggies AD spells out trouble at Texas A&M"
“I have done this job a long time and I don’t blame Kevin Sumlin. If someone is going to give you $5 million a year for six years, it would have been stupid of him to turn it down,” Hyman said. “But the contract was given to me, and it was ‘This is what we are going to do.’ I looked at myself and I was stunned.
“I had no say so over it. I’ve been doing this job for a long time. I had worked with Steve Spurrier for years, and he was paid a heck of a lot less than Coach Sumlin. And he won national championships after conference championships. And then you are making this commitment to a person, and again I don’t blame Kevin, that’s never won a conference championship.
“When the original contract was given to me, if Kevin were to leave the next day there was no buyout provision.”
Is this a case of an ex-athletic director covering his behind with revisionist history? On this one, no.
Given Hyman’s history of how he handled coaches and costs plus A&M’s history of an “active board,” his explanation is plausible.
But why would A&M give Sumlin such a deal when there was no need?
“Because people didn’t know what they were doing,” Hyman said. “I learned this valuable lesson when I was at VMI (Virginia Military Institute), what the 12th Man Foundation is, or the Frog Club, or whatever.
http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/mac-engel/article174596706.html