As ACC director Jim Phillips just put it, former Miami Hurricanes mind basketball coach Jim Larraaga has long earned the reputation of manning himself with the “utmost dignity and class” as he has long maintained. However, his press conference last month did not convey that statement, as he blatantly announced his retirement from school training. Instead, I overheard the 75-year-old retirement venting an exceedingly well-known annoyance about the position he and others like him have then found themselves in as educators trying to compete in the modern NCAA.
As Larrañaga explained, he had grown “exhausted” by the want of newly empowered college players to look for better options, even if they were usually content with their present situation. He apparently found this baffling, despite having done very little equal point 13 years earlier, when he left George Mason for Miami.

I have very little advice to offer one on how to handle the job at its most recent turning point and I have nothing to say about coaching. However, having spent most of my professional existence covering sports and politics, I am well-versed in tone-deafness and self-aggrandizement and may offer some advice on how to let go of a particular job.
By certain people, I am generally thinking about big-time college football and basketball instructors who, like Larrañaga, lavished themselves for years in an unjust and illegal method of price-fixing and labour oppression, and have now concluded it’s no longer worth their time or power.
I have no problem with that decision, as easy as it might be. But there’s a polite way of doing most anything, and that includes quitting in the face of adversity.
But, consider this a rulebook for how rich coaches can receive a passing degree on their last undergraduate assignment: the retirement announcement.
After all, Larrañaga, with his$ 2.85 million/year income, is almost the biggest recipient of university sports ‘ rich history of crony capitalism. And his speech on Thursday was hardly the most disagreeable one to be made on this area in recent memory.
There were the dark murmurings of Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim, who a fortnight before retiring at the end of the 2022-23 time, railed at the “terrible area” college hockey was in while deriding Larrañaga’s Hurricanes—along with Pittsburgh and Wake Forest—for having “bought” their teams ‘ recent successes through NIL inducements. ( He later responded by retracing his acceptance of the latter two programs. )

Then there’s former Alabama football coach Nick Saban, who pocketed more than$ 121 million in total annual compensation—and millions more in bonuses—as coach of the Crimson Tide, who chalked up his retirement last January, in no small part, to the perceived self-interest of his players following the team’s 2024 CFP semifinal loss to Michigan
To be sure, there are some college coaches who have handled their farewell well, evincing a sense of self-awareness and magnanimity.
Mike Krzyżewski, who retired from Duke in March 2022 after being the highest-paid college coach the previous fiscal cycle, explained that his career-ending decision was “certainly not about what’s going on with college basketball” and hailed NIL as the “impetus” for much-needed change to the NCAA’s governance.
Meanwhile, former Virginia coach Tony Bennett, who abruptly resigned two-and-a-half weeks before the start of this current college basketball season, squarely put the onus on himself. ” I looked at myself and I realized, I’m no longer the best coach to lead this program”, he said.
Let those words serve as the guiding principles for upcoming retiring coaches at upcoming impromptu press conferences in the new year. In order to achieve this, I would like to provide the following script as a verbal or written resource that can be used.
Good morning /afternoon,
” I am announcing my retirement, effective]insert date], from the University of]insert name]. I want to apologize to my current players for abandoning them at this time, and I want to express my sincere gratitude to all those who have assisted me throughout my career. Making coaching my profession has been a privilege, and I’m forever grateful for the chance to work with such gifted and dedicated people.
As we all know, college sports have undergone a significant change in recent years. With those changes, the role of a coach has evolved as well. Some of us, once well-suited to the demands of the job, may no longer have the capacity, the resolve, or the desire to meet those challenges. This is not a statement of self-pity. My inability to carry on]and fulfill the terms of my contract ] is my failure alone. I acknowledge that I have long been benefited by a system that favors us overshadows athletes and discredits them. That system was fueled by student fees and tax dollars, and for too long we ignored its injustices. I accept full responsibility for my part in that, and I have no choice but to apologize. Fortunately, college athletes have now gained some, though still not all, of the same opportunities of upward mobility that coaches like me have exploited for generations”.

Start off with that, or something to that effect. Resist the strong urges to slam” the Wild West” or repeat any other nonsense that these days passes for wisdom.
Thank your family, the university’s president and athletic director, the fans, the students, the board of regents, the boosters and your agent and sail off into the sunset/consulting job/broadcast booth/podcast studio secure in the knowledge that regardless of your successes or failures as a college head coach, at least you didn’t leave the job a sore loser. Or, even worse, a bad winner.