IMO
Loyalty - can be enforced via contract terms
1) Buyout clause if coach leaves for another program
a) different terms for Mid-Major vs P4
2) Buyout clause if coach is fired for on court performance / wins or lack thereof
Suppose CTS left Mason tomorrow and was named the HC at Duke or North Carolina or Kentucky or Kansas or UCLA or ...
I would not expect GMU to offer him the same salary to stay, but this should be turned into a positive in terms of recruiting the next coach, players and even the general student body.
------
University Commitment
paying a winning coach in the top 25% of league salaries signals a commitment to the program - both to that specific coach, but all potential future coaches as well as other members of the Conference and the larger college basketball community in general.
It tells everyone that Bball is important, and your sport is the top dog on campus. That in of itself will serve to attract talent - both coaching and players.
----------
The NIL Arms Race
There is no guarantee that an NIL Budget of $3M to $5M will produce wins. But you are assured to lose if you don't compete on those terms. If GMU has $0 NIL budget and the rest of the A-10 averages $1M budget then most of the good players will go to those teams - not GMU.
But when every team has relatively the same amount of NIL Budget, then all you have done is raise the minimum cost of competing. Conference wide the average cost of a win (and loss) has risen.
Players are winners in this system, smart players can exploit the system and get "supra-normal" returns, i.e., payments above their actual value. - i.e. Haynes goes from ACC bench to starter and A-10 First Team to asking for $1M
-------
Value of a Coach
I believe that the head coach is the key determinant of a program's success. This extends to his rolodex (yes i am old) in that gets access to assistant coaches, staff, players and the ability to create "goodwill" across all of those "actors". This is especially critical in the free agency period where coaches must recruit teams every season. Player evaluation and player development skills are required for success.
In this case CTS is a great match for Mason, and i hope that this season he goes into his rolodex to get us a higher quality OOC schedule. And this last season's results show that his (and his staffs') player evaluation and player development skills are spot on.
---------
Some schools run BBall programs with an implicit coach's salary cap. They will only attract young and upcoming coaches who use the program as a proving ground then move onto a bigger, better programs after winning. This is not inherently bad as for some programs this is all they can afford.
The problem is that not every coach hired will be a winner and firing a coach or multiple coaches can be costly, both in monetary terms as well as "goodwill". I am glad that the new GMU leadership has not followed this path and seemed to have learned a lesson from the loss of Kim English.
