The end is looming large for Mizzou women's basketball's 2023-24 season.
The Tigers are taking the 14th and final seed to the SEC Tournament, where they are set to face Florida in the tournament's first round Wednesday in Greenville, South Carolina.
After the conclusion of Missouri's 2022-23 campaign, which ended after the second round of the WNIT, then-MU athletic director Desireé Reed-Francois set defined expectations for coach Robin Pingeton to get the Tigers back to the NCAA Tournament.
That, in all likelihood, isn't going to happen for Pingeton's Tigers in the 2023-24 season.
But Reed-Francois left for Arizona in February, leaving Marcy Girton as the interim AD as the administration searches for Reed-Francois' full-time replacement. Girton was hired to Missouri last May as a senior associate athletics director for football administration and special projects.
When the season ends, will Girton, or whoever takes the job full time, make the call to fire Pingeton? The university announced it had hired a search firm and established a search committee for its next athletic director Tuesday afternoon.
Pingeton, who is in her 14th year as the coach of the Tigers, has one year remaining on her current deal.
If MU chooses to fire Pingeton on or after April 1, her buyout stands at $233,333.
One novel detail in Pingeton's contract is that if she is fired without cause she must be given 30 days of advance written notice, unless otherwise agreed to by the athletic director and the coach.
Pingeton's current contract went into effect July 1, 2018, and is set to expire April 30, 2025. She is currently paid a base salary of $400,000 per year and earns an additional $100,000 in non-salary compensation.
After the Tigers' home loss against Vanderbilt last Thursday, Pingeton was asked if she had given any thought to her future with the program.
"I'm a firm believer in being where my feet are and about being present, about controlling what I can control and winning the day," Pingeton said. "And that's what we talk to our players about on a daily basis, and I think it's really important that I'm in a place that I'm modeling that behavior for them."
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: What is Missouri women's hoops coach Robin Pingeton's buyout?
