College football’s regular season is over, but the coaching carousel has been spinning for months.
Some of the game’s biggest jobs opened after Arkansas, Penn State, and Florida among others all fired their coaches after slow starts. Both Kentucky and Michigan State fired theirs at the conclusion of Saturday’s regular season.
But firing a coach tends to come with a cost. Without a negotiated settlement, LSU owes Kelly the roughly $53 million remaining on his guaranteed contract, slightly more than Penn State owed James Franklin before he became head coach at Virginia Tech.
March 2025
- Stanford: Unknown amount to Troy Taylor
Stanford is a private school, so the exact amount they owe former coach Troy Taylor is not known. Despite the fact that the school fired Taylor in the wake of two investigations into his behavior, Taylor has said that the school plans on paying him the entirety of his original deal.
“The truth is that Stanford terminated me without cause,” Taylor said in a statement, “and, as a result, is honoring the original payment terms of my contract.”
Taylor was fired after a pair of 3–9 seasons and is suing ESPN for defamation over their reporting into the misconduct investigations. Frank Reich is coaching the team for one season as the interim coach under Andrew Luck.
Week 3
- Virginia Tech: $6 million to Brent Pry
- UCLA: $6.43 million to DeShaun Foster
The Hokies fired fourth-year coach Brent Pry after an 0–3 start and just one winning season in his first three. Pry was hired in 2021 to a six-year contract worth $27.5 million for an average of $4.75 million annually. His contract came with a clause that said he is owed 70% of the remaining base salary of his contract if he’s fired before it’s up, except for the final year of the contract, when it drops to 50%.
Virginia Tech is paying Pry $6 million, which comes from $3.5 million for the 2026 season and $2.5 million for 2027, according to CBS Sports. The buyout is paid out in monthly installments until the end of 2027, which is roughly $222,222 per month.
The same weekend, UCLA fired DeShaun Foster, a former player who went just 5–10 in 15 games as head coach after signing a five-year, $15 million contract in January 2024. Similar to Pry, Foster’s buyout has a similar structure. UCLA owes Foster 70% of his remaining salary before Dec. 1. His deal came with a declining percentage of what he’s owed for the remaining years on his contract, dropping to 60% for 2026 and 50% in 2027 and 2028, according to the Los Angeles Times.
At the time of his firing, UCLA said it would pay Foster’s buyout with funds from the athletic department. Foster’s contract does not come with a payment schedule for his buyout, according to On3. Instead, the school is required to make “any payments to the coach by the university shall be paid prior to the end of the term of this contract.”
Week 4
- Oklahoma State: $15 million to Mike Gundy
Oklahoma State fired longtime coach Mike Gundy after a 1–2 start in late September. Before getting sacked, Gundy trailed only Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz as the longest-tenured coach in FBS after getting the job in 2005. Ferentz was hired in 1999.
Gundy struggled to adapt to both paying players and poaching them in the transfer portal, and the Cowboys struggled in recent seasons. In December 2024, the school gave Gundy a new deal that came with a $1 million pay cut, which went toward NIL payments for players. But it also came with a unique buyout structure. Instead of a declining percentage such as Pry and Foster, Gundy had a flat rate of $15 million if he was fired in any of the first three years of his new deal.
Week 5
- Arkansas: $8.7 million to Sam Pittman
Arkansas fired Sam Pittman on Sept. 28 a day after a 56–13 blowout loss to Notre Dame that dropped the Razorbacks to 2–3. Pittman signed a new contract with the school in 2022 after going 9–4 the previous year. The deal increased his annual salary to $5 million and changed the structure of his buyout.
Arkansas fired Pittman while he had a record above .500 since the 2021 season, which made his buyout $9.8 million. Had the school waited until Pittman’s record dropped below .500, he would only be owed $5.7 million. Pittman gave the school a discount anyway. Athletic director Hunter Yurachek later told reporters Pittman negotiated a deal that lowered the amount the school owed him from 75% of his remaining contract to 62.5%. The deal removed the required for Pittman to seek new employment,meaning his payout would not be mitigated by any future income.
The $8.7 million also included a prorated retention payment of $972,328.77 that the school agreed to pay Pittman when it fired him, according to The Southwest Times Record. That payment is due within 30 days from the date of Pittman’s firing, which was finalized on Oct. 1 and therefore due Friday.
Pittman will receive $286,458 each month for the next 27 months, ending on Dec. 31, 2027. His first month will pay roughly $1.2 million due to the retention payment.
Week 7
- Penn State: $50 million to James Franklin
Penn State fired longtime coach James Franklin on Oct. 12 after a third consecutive loss that tanked the Nittany Lions’ chances at a College Football Playoff berth. Franklin’s buyout is roughly $50 million, making it one of the largest in the sport’s history.
His buyout consists of his $500,000 annual base salary plus additional compensation of $6.5 million and a $1 million life insurance policy coverage that expires at the end of the 2031 season, when the deal ends. That amounts to about $48 million, and the rest of the money he’s owed for this season brings it closer to $50 million. That amount will be paid out over the life of the contract.
But Penn State might not have to pay Franklin much at all. He will be a highly sought-after coach and if he takes another job, or a broadcast opportunity, Penn State will only owe him the difference between the two contracts.
Week 8
- Florida: $21.2 million to Billy Napier
- Colorado State: $1.5 million to Jay Norvell
Florida fired coach Billy Napier on Oct. 19, a day after the Gators beat Mississippi State to improve to 3–4. Napier is owed roughly $21 million according to his contract, and has no offset language reducing the Gators’ liabilities if he gets another job.
Napier’s contract calls for him to receive 85% of his annual compensation, which is $7.4 million. It also requires Florida to pay him half of his total buyout within 30 days of firing him, which is roughly $10.6 million. After that payment, Florida will owe Naper $2.65 million annually by July 15 until 2029.
Colorado State fired coach Jay Norvell the same day, at a much cheaper cost. Norvell was in the penultimate year of his initial CSU contract, which he signed in 2021 and was set to pay him $1.9 million this season. CSU owes Norvell $1.5 million for firing him during when it did.
Week 9
- LSU: $53 million to Brian Kelly
Kelly didn’t enter LSU AD Scott Woodward’s office expecting to be fired on Sunday, but it’s what ultimately happened after
Kelly was fired Sunday after a confrontation with LSU athletic director Scott Woodward, according to multiple reports.
After a 5–3 start to the season, Kelly is now out of a job without finishing the fourth season of a 10-year, $100 million contract in 2022. That contract has $53 million on it, trailing only the $77 million Texas A&M is paying Jimbo Fisher to go away after firing him in 2023. (Woodward hired both Fisher, when he was the Texas A&M athletic director, and Kelly.)
Terms of Kelly’s firing were still being discussed as of Sunday evening, according to multiple reports. Just like Franklin, Kelly is likely to be an attractive candidate on the coaching market, which means that LSU may end up owing him far less money than the $53 million it’s currently on the hook for. If Kelly doesn’t land another job or reach a settlement with the school, LSU will pay him about $800,000 in monthly installments.
Week 10
- Auburn: $15.8 million to Hugh Freeze
Auburn athletic director John Cohen announced Sunday that the school decided “to make a change in leadership” and has parted ways with Freeze after a 10–3 home loss to Kentucky. Saturday’s defeat dropped Auburn to 4–5 and 1-5 in the SEC. Freeze was hired before the 2023 season, and his deal ran through 2028.
Freeze was 15–19 overall and 6–16 in the SEC in three seasons at Auburn. Despite strong recruiting classes and investments in the transfer portal, the Tigers never posted a winning record under Freeze. Defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin will serve as the interim coach.
Week 11
- California: $10.9 million to Justin Wilcox
The Bears fired Wilcox on Nov. 23 after a 31–10 blowout loss to rival Stanford. Wilcox led the program to bowl eligibility in three consecutive seasons, but never had a winning record in the ACC.
Wilcox was fired by Cal general manager Ron Rivera, who played for the Bears in the 1980s, and had an accomplished career as an NFL head coach before being hired by his alma mater to help the program compete in college football’s NIL and revenue sharing era.
“I want to thank Justin for all of his contributions to our football program, our athletic department and our university,” Rivera said in a statement. “He has always comported himself with class and professionalism. After careful consideration, we believe the time has come for new leadership. We wish Justin the best of luck in his future endeavors.”
Wilcox’s buyout is roughly $10.9 million, according to the USA Today database, for being fired without cause before Dec. 1. He was making $4.8 million for the 2025 season and would have netted a $250,000 bonus had he remained the Bears coach at the end of the season.
Week 12
- Michigan State: $33 million to Jonathan Smith
- Kentucky: $37 million to Mark Stoops
Smith was fired at the conclusion of Michigan State’s regular season after going 4–8 with just one win in conference play. In 2024, the Spartans went 5–7, but had all of their wins vacated due to an NCAA settlement over recruiting violations committed by former coach Mel Tucker.
MSU fired Smith after just two seasons. In 2024, the school signed Smith to a seven-year contract worth $52.8 million. The deal still has $38.25 million left on it after this season. Smith is owed 85% of that figure, which equates to almost $33 million, according to the Detroit Free Press.
Those payments are made in monthly installments through 2030 and include three months of health-care benefits. However, the contract comes with offset language if Smith gets another job in college or the NFL. The Free Press also reported that the Spartans intend to hire former Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald to replace Smith.
Stoops was fired on Monday despite being the winningest coach in Kentucky history, passing Bear Bryant in September 2022. Stopps was the longest-tenured coach in the SEC, having just finished his 13th season in Lexington. Now he becomes the fifth coach in the conference to be fired this season.
Stoops led the Wildcats to multiple 10-win seasons, one of which was later vacated due to recruiting violations, but was fired after consecutive losing seasons. Kentucky went 10–3 in 2018, which was the Wildcats’ first season to reach double digits in wins since 1977. He made $9 million this season on a contract that ran through June 2031, according to the USA Today database. Stoops’s contract states he is owed 75% of his remaining salary, which is almost $38 million to be paid in 60 days of his termination. However, On3 reported that Stoops agreed to spread the payments he’s owed over multiple years instead of one payment. Stoops’s buyout is among the five highest in the history of college football.
