That dynamic should be particularly helpful to Wake Forest coach Danny Manning, whose team lost its opening game in the ACC tournament before it got canceled and finished 13-18 this season (6-14 in the ACC). It was the fifth time in Manning’s six years that the Demon Deacons finished under .500 in the league. In many circumstances that would be the end of the coach’s tenure, but in 2017 the school’s then-athletic director, Ron Wellman, signed Manning to a contract extension that requires Wake Forest to pay him a buyout that sources say is around $15 million – and that’s before the school pays his successor a penny. That’s a stretch for a private school such as Wake Forest, so making a change would require help from well-heeled boosters like Ben Sutton, a Wake alum and former president of IMG College who is the chair of a major private equity fund and portfolio holding company. But are those folks going to be so eager to part with their cash now?
Wake Forest has not issued any official word on Manning’s status, and it may not do so if it doesn’t make a change. That’s the easy, default position for a school that was trying to figure out what it wanted to do before the outbreak. “The people who made their decisions three weeks ago are still making moves now,” the industry source says. “But if people were even 75-25, they’re putting the brakes on.”
