Collins deal not cheap — but manageable

Georgia Tech athletic director Todd Stansbury had to raid the cookie jar to pay for the hire of new football coach Geoff Collins and his staff.

The transition from coach Paul Johnson to Collins and the hiring of new staff cost the athletic department a little less than $6 million, associate AD for finance and administration Marvin Lewis said Thursday at the quarterly meeting of the Georgia Tech Athletic Association. Tech already was projecting to run a $2.8 million deficit for the fiscal year, but now will be closer to $9 million.

As a result, Tech’s fund balance — its money for a rainy day — has been depleted. It was about $6.65 million at the start of the fiscal year in July.

“It was a very smooth transition, but we knew there were going to be costs associated with it,” Stansbury told the AJC following the meeting.

With the coaching change, Tech is on the hook for paying the remaining salary for Johnson’s staff (contracts typically run July to June) and then has to start paying Collins and his new hires.

As transitions often include a firing and a buyout to the outgoing coach, Tech got off relatively light. Johnson will receive $250,000 annually for the next four years. He would have been owed $4 million had he been fired at the end of the 2018 season. Lewis said that transitions can cost between $10 and $12 million.

“In terms of our transition costs, we feel like, all things considered, we’re in good shape with how the transition’s been handled,” Lewis said.