Swampcast breaks down Florida baseball resurgence, Florida softball regionals
The Sun’s Kevin Brockway and Noah Ram discusses Florida softball regionals, Boogie Fland rumors and Florida baseball’s resurgence with the SEC Network’s Nick Belmonte.
- Florida basketball coach Todd Golden’s contract extension includes a decreasing buyout for NBA teams.
- The buyout for other college teams is significantly higher than the NBA buyout.
Florida basketball coach Todd Golden was rewarded handsomely with a six-year, $40.5 million contract extension after guiding UF to its third national title in school history in April.
But the contract offers an interesting provision. If Golden were to leave the Florida Gators for an NBA team, his contract buyout goes from $3 million on April 15, 2026, to $2 million through March 31, 2028, to $1 million through March 31, 2029, to no buyout after that date.
The buyout values are significantly lower than if Golden were to leave for another college team, which is $16 million before April 15, 2026, to $11 million before March 31, 2027, $4 million before March 31, 2028, $3 million before March 31, 2029, $2 million before March 31, 2030, and $1 million before March 31, 2031.
Golden explained the reason for the NBA buyout clause in his contact.
“It’s more of just kind of keeping that opportunity potentially available down the road,” Golden said. “That’s not necessarily something that I’m thinking about right now a whole lot. But, you know, these contracts, it’s like real-life stuff, right?
“So, you gotta make sure that you give yourself a little bit of opportunity that way, you know, in terms of the college game, like, I’m here at Florida for a long time. You know, it’s everything I need, everything my family needs. And, you know, I don’t necessarily anticipate the NBA being something that’s super enticing anytime soon. But again, like, just the optionality is something that’s important to us, but I’m a Gator for a long time.”
At 39, Golden became the youngest coach since Jim Valvano is 1983 to win a national championship and has led UF to a 76-33 record in three seasons. Given Golden’s forward-thinking, analytics background, there are some in basketball circles that feel is he is capable of coaching at the NBA level.
The trend in the NBA the past decade has been to hire long-time assistant coaches within the league as head coaches, but there are exceptions. The Los Angeles Lakers took a pass at UConn two-time national championship coach Dan Hurley before Hurley opted to stay in college.
If Golden decided to move on to the pros, he wouldn’t be the first Florida basketball coach to test the NBA waters. Lon Kruger, who led UF to its first Final Four trip in school history in 1994, spent three years as head coach with the Atlanta Hawks (2000-03) and another year as an assistant with the New York Knicks. Billy Donovan, who led UF to two national titles and four Final Four trips in 19 years as head coach, has spent the last 10 years as coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder (2015-20) and Chicago Bulls (2020-25). Donovan will be inducted to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame on Sept. 6.
Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1. Read his coverage of the Gators’ national championship basketball season in “CHOMP-IONS!” — a hardcover coffee-table collector’s book from The Sun. Details at Florida.ChampsBook.com
