Coaching Buyouts to Surpass $1B in College Football Playoff Era

As college football buyouts continue to expand at a record pace this season, the money schools have paid to fired coaches in the College Football Playoff era has recently set a new mark, too.

Since the 2014 season, the first time the CFP was implemented and officially replaced the Bowl Championship Series (BCS), severance pay for FBS coaches at public universities is nearing $1 billion, according to data in a new report from the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. 

Including buyouts for head coaches and assistant coaches, the total for the past 12 fiscal years, which includes the previous calendar year’s football season (i.e., the 2015 fiscal year contains coaches fired during or after the 2014 season), has likely already surpassed $1 billion.

• 2015: $32.3 million
• 2016: $39.9 million
• 2017: $48.3 million
• 2018: $104.1 million
• 2019: $68.9 million
• 2020: $61.6 million
• 2021: $84.7 million
• 2022: $98.2 million
• 2023: $103.1 million
• 2024: $120.7 million
• 2025: $34.7 million
• 2026: $185 million

The figures from fiscal years 2015 to 2024 are actual amounts from NCAA financial reports; the fiscal years 2025 and 2026 (the current season) are based on various media reports, and don’t include buyouts for assistant coaches, which will increase the amount even further.

A Cap for Coaching Salaries?

The latest Knight Commission data arrives after Rep. Michael Baumgartner (R., Wash.) last week proposed a bill—the Correcting Opportunity and Accountability in Collegiate Hiring Act (COACH Act)—that would limit any athletics salary, including football coaches, to no more than 10 times a school’s tuition costs.

“As Congress debates the merits of federal legislation to place limits and guardrails on college athlete compensation, it should also examine the conditions that allow for the continued growth of excessive compensation and severance for football coaches at non-profit universities,” Knight Commission CEO Amy Privette Perko said in a statement.

This season, LSU leads the way with a $53 million buyout for firing Brian Kelly, followed by Penn State’s $49.7 million buyout of James Franklin. The largest buyout ever remains the $77 million Texas A&M agreed to pay Jimbo Fisher in 2023.