ORLANDO, Fla. — I like Scott Stricklin. Let me say that right off the top.

I think he’s been a solid athletic director at the University of Florida. I think he’s smart, approachable, likable. He’s overseen national championships in multiple sports, managed UF’s entry into the modern arms race of facilities, and hired Todd Golden — a young basketball coach who just delivered the school’s third national title in hoops. By all accounts, Stricklin has done some good work.

But here’s what I don’t understand: Why did he just get a three-year contract extension and a significant raise at the very moment the football program — the lifeblood of Florida athletics — sits on the brink of another coaching change that would cost the university about $20 million in buyout money?

That timing doesn’t make sense.

Because while I like Stricklin and think he’s been competent, the reality is simple: at Florida, athletic directors are judged by one thing — football hires. And so far, Stricklin is 0-for-2. That doesn’t mean he should be fired, but it also doesn’t mean he deserves three more years on a contract that already had two years remaining on it.

When Stricklin hired Napier in 2021, the move seemed like it might work. Napier was young, hungry, organized and successful at Louisiana. He had worked under Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney. He was seen as an up-and-comer with a reputation for structure and recruiting prowess. Fine.

But Stricklin didn’t just hire Napier — he married him. Seven years and $52 million. Almost all of it guaranteed.

For a coach coming from the Sun Belt Conference.

Why?

Did Napier really have that much leverage? Would he have turned down Florida if offered a five-year deal at $4 million per year (more than double his salary at Louisiana)? Highly doubtful. He was a head coach in the Sun Belt and Florida was offering him potentially one of the best jobs in the SEC.

Now, four years later, unless Napier salvages the season as he did a year ago, Florida will likely fire him. The Gators will write Napier a $20 million check to go away — a sum that could have been $4 or $5 million if the contract were more modest. That $15 million difference is a direct result of Stricklin’s decision-making.

And sure, in today’s college football economy, tens of millions of dollars flow like Monopoly money. Universities spend like Jeff Bezos’ new wife at the Botox clinic. They blow all of this money on bloated salaries and staffing, facilities, buyouts, and then — with a straight face — beg fans and boosters to bankroll NIL collectives.

But $15 million isn’t Monopoly money. It’s real. It’s more than most colleges spend on their entire roster.

Which raises the question: Why did Stricklin just get rewarded with more years and more money when his most important decision as Florida’s athletic director has been a clear and costly failure?

This isn’t just about Napier’s contract length and cost. It’s also about accountability.

Napier’s biggest flaw has been stubbornness on offense. Everyone could see it. Fans saw it. Boosters saw it. Analysts saw it. Napier was trying to be head coach, CEO, play-caller all at once. It hasn’t worked and the solution was obvious: hire an offensive coordinator.

But Stricklin, who ultimately oversees the program, never forced the issue. He allowed Napier to keep control of the play-calling reins. That’s not just Napier’s failure. It’s Stricklin’s too.

In addition, Florida has invested massively in football these past four years: new facilities, expanded staff, bigger recruiting budgets. If you were to sum up everything Stricklin has spent on Napier’s program over the last four years, the figure probably approaches half-a-billion dollars.

And for what? Napier is 20-22 and, at least record wise, is the worst Gators coach since the 1940s. Right now, you could argue that the Gators are the fifth-best program in the state behind Miami, Florida State, UCF and USF.

Look around: Billy Napier was hired in the same cycle as Mario Cristobal at Miami, Brian Kelly at LSU, Lincoln Riley at USC and Sonny Dykes at TCU. All of them have produced far more. Dykes took TCU to a national title game. Kelly has LSU rolling. Cristobal has Miami unbeaten and ranked No. 2 in the country. Riley’s USC team is unbeaten and ranked in the Top 25.

And Dan Mullen? The coach Stricklin fired to hire Napier? He’s 4-0 at UNLV. In hindsight, was firing Mullen after one bad year the right call?

Here’s the part that’s really rankling. Florida may fire Napier and pay him $20 million to sit on his couch. Meanwhile, Stricklin — the man who hired him and gave him the bloated contract — just got a raise and an extension through 2030, plus a cushy “special assistant” role for five years after that.

Where are the checks and balances?

The Florida Board of Governors will step in to block the hiring of a potential UF president (Santa Ono) over his past views on diversity and equity, but somehow an outgoing interim president, Kent Fuchs, can quietly hand his athletic director buddy a three-year extension before leaving office? And, by the way, why hasn’t UF even announced Stricklin’s extension?

It just doesn’t smell right.

Again, I don’t want this to sound like a hit piece. Stricklin has had success, most notably the hiring of Golden. But let’s be honest: basketball is not the economic driver at Florida. It doesn’t pay the bills. It doesn’t move the needle. Football does. And Florida football is worse off today than when Stricklin arrived.

In fact, if not for Golden’s title, Stricklin would be on the hot seat right next to Napier.

Which brings me to my radical take:

Florida should be forced to keep Billy Napier.

If you make a bad hire, you should live with it. You shouldn’t be allowed to spend $20 million of university and booster money just to cover your own mistake. Firing a coach after four years and paying him generational wealth to leave isn’t just bad optics — it’s fiscal lunacy.

The Gators hired Napier. They gave him the bloated deal. They should ride it out, painful as it may be.

Stricklin should not be rewarded at the very moment when his most important job performance — hiring the right football coach — has never looked worse.

And that’s the problem with Florida athletics right now:

The Gators, it seems, don’t just have a football problem; they have an accountability problem.

Not only do they keep whiffing on coaches, they keep burning money to cover it up.