Barry Odom has the cheapest head coaching salary (and, possibly, the cheapest buyout) in the SEC

Here are today's Mizzou Links.

By Bill Connelly@SBN_BillC Oct 27, 2016, 5:06am CDT

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The USA Today does a pretty fun job of posting databases for certain things online -- NCAA finances, for example. Yesterday, the paper/site updated its head coach salary database for 2016; it also included buyout information this time.

Long story short: Barry Odom came cheap, both in terms of salary and buyout. His salary ranks 47th in the nation and last in the SEC, and his buyout is about $1.9 million, lower than that of Wyoming's Craig Bohl.

It was obvious he would be one of the lower-paid coaches in the conference -- he's a first-timer, after all -- but that was a little bit jarring to see. He's cheaper than Vanderbilt's Derek Mason, and he's much cheaper than Kentucky's Mark Stoops, though I'm pretty sure Stoops got a decent raise/extension when he came firing out of the gates in recruiting. (I'm sure those who have already given up on Odom have "You get what you pay for" snark cued up and ready. Fire away.)

Methinks Odom really wanted this job and was willing to accept the first offer. And in the face of uncertainty following last year's protests, Mack Rhoades was more than happy to take advantage of that. I still think Odom had the résumé and Missouri-specific experience to make him a relatively smart hire (and I'm still pretty confident in him, long-term), but at the very least, "He's willing to come cheap" might have been a tie-breaker of sorts.