[OutsiderFan]

Just wondering...if Dykes  is somewhat publicly interviewing for other jobs, and perhaps bad mouthing his current job, could ןɐɔ reasonably claim that Sonny breached his contract with them and so no more money is owed?

This is an interesting angle.  It's being reported that the buyout was $6MM, but I don't think this number is any smaller than it was suppose to be in his contract.

This is really the nut of it, from Cal AD Williams:
“Our objective is long-term financial sustainability for our department. In order to do this, we understand that investing in football is critical. We believe that this change will reinvigorate the program, stimulate lagging ticket sales and renewals, and energize our donor base.”

Translation:
We're hemorrhaging cash.  Football revenue drives department funding, and nobody wants to pay for the lousy product we've been putting out lately.  Now, with even greater financial pressure, we've realized it actually costs us more money in the long run to not invest in our football program.  So even if the faculty doesn't like it, we've decided we simply must make market rate investments in our football program to compete with the likes of Oregon, Washington, Stanford, UCLA, and U$C.

[OutsiderFan]

Just wondering...if Dykes  is somewhat publicly interviewing for other jobs, and perhaps bad mouthing his current job, could ןɐɔ reasonably claim that Sonny breached his contract with them and so no more money is owed?

This is an interesting angle.  It's being reported that the buyout was $6MM, but I don't think this number is any smaller than it was suppose to be in his contract.

This is really the nut of it, from Cal AD Williams:
“Our objective is long-term financial sustainability for our department. In order to do this, we understand that investing in football is critical. We believe that this change will reinvigorate the program, stimulate lagging ticket sales and renewals, and energize our donor base.”

Translation:
We're hemorrhaging cash.  Football revenue drives department funding, and nobody wants to pay for the lousy product we've been putting out lately.  Now, with even greater financial pressure, we've realized it actually costs us more money in the long run to not invest in our football program.  So even if the faculty doesn't like it, we've decided we simply must make market rate investments in our football program to compete with the likes of Oregon, Washington, Stanford, UCLA, and U$C.