It's business with millions at stake. Leverage is always a part of that. He used his leverage to get an absurd contract when no one outside of Rutgers would even consider hiring him. The school has the right the to do the same thing when he's failing performance. Yes, he has a contract and we are obligated to pay him per that contract. However, we aren't required to support him via NIL and revenue share. We partake in revenue share which stipulates we are allowed to directly compensate athletes up to $20.4MM. Note athletes, not football players. Keli could say, we don't believe in you anymore. We don't have the funds for the current payout, so we we've decided to limit your NIL/rev share number to near 0. We understand that will limit your effectiveness as a coach. Given that, we are open to a lump sum negotiated buy out that is more palatable to the department and university as a whole.
Again, it's a power move, but Schiano's utter failure combined with Hobbs' idiotic extension has put Keli, the dept., and the entire school in a bad situation. If Schiano doesn't want to play ball, then make him play ball.
As to the next coach, you can explain how it was an inherited terrible situation and the rev share/NIL will codified in their contract so that won't be possible to replicate again.
Since Schiano doesn't receive part or any NIL funds or revenue share you're basically saying Keli should punish the program in an effort to get rid of him over his expecting her to honor his contract.
Telling the candidates for the next RU HC she wants to interview " it was a terrible situation "might work, but realistically it show them that when things look bad Zinn has a tendency to destroy any chance of making it better.
Thoigh it might be a good hardball move, it also stands a chance to come back and bite RU in the butt when it comes to getting the candidate deemed as good replacements to feel Rutgers won't try to short change them if things look a little dark by making sure they don't get the talent they need to win in an effort to get them to leave on her terms and not what Rutger's contractually obligated to do.
She would have proven by hard-balling Schiano the way you want Zinn to do ,is that Keli is willing to weaken the program just to get rid of someone she doesn't want
What needs to be done is try to offer Schiano a high enough buyout that pays him in full at less than he would be paid by taking his biweekly payments till his contract with Rutgers has ended and not give him a platform to excuse the losses his program endures by pointing out how Zinn mage sure the program couldn't bring in the talent to turn things around because Keli effectively sabotaged his ability to sign talent to the roster and made it impossible to field a winning team.
Here's an idea !! Zinn does what you want , but uses the NIL and revenue she holds back from Schiano and builds a football field-house with that money.
Then when Greg complains he didn't get the financial support he needed to field a winning team, Keli can call him a liar by pointing out Schiano was given the field-house of his dreams and that was the money he claims not to have received

