As a general rule, college football is dominated by a handful of elite programs that use massive resources and huge purses to attract the best coaches and players.
Sometimes, those coaches don’t work out. That’s when disappointed athletic directors and angry fans opt to buy the coach out of their contract balance and replace them with someone new.
As you’ll see in the chart below, some of those buyouts can be very large.
Any fan base that sees their coach here and in my college football hot seat list could be in big trouble.
Biggest Buyouts In College Football
| Rank | Coach | School | Buyout (As of 12/1/24) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kirby Smart | Georgia | $118.1 Million |
| 2 | Kalen DeBoer | Alabama | $70.1 Million |
| 3 | Mike Norvell | Florida State | $63.8 Million |
| 4 | Brian Kelly | LSU | $61.7 Million |
| 5 | Dabo Swinney | Clemson | $60 Million |
| 6 | James Franklin | Penn State | $56.7 Million |
| 7 | Matt Rhule | Nebraska | $56.3 Million |
| 8 | Steve Sarkisian | Texas | $55 Million |
| 9 | Mark Stoops | Kentucky | $44.4 Million |
| 10 | Jedd Fisch | Washington | $40.2 Million |
| 11 | Luke Fickell | Wisconsin | $40.2 Million |
| 12 | Jonathan Smith | Michigan State | $39.8 Million |
| 13 | Jeff Brohm | Louisville | $39.3 Million |
| 14 | Josh Heupel | Tennessee | $37.5 Million |
| 15 | Ryan Day | Ohio State | $37.3 Million |
| 16 | Lane Kiffin | Ole Miss | $36.6 Million |
| 17 | Kirk Ferentz | Iowa | $31 Million |
| 18 | Chris Klieman | Kansas State | $29.6 Million |
| 19 | Bret Bielema | Illinois | $29.1 Million |
| 20 | Greg Schiano | Rutgers | $28.7 Million |
| 21 | Eli Drinkwitz | Missouri | $28.3 Million |
| 22 | Lance Leipold | Kansas | $27.8 Million |
| 23 | Mike Elko | Texas A&M | $27.1 Million |
| 24 | Billy Napier | Florida | $26.7 Million |
| 25 | Mike Gundy | Oklahoma State | $25.4 Million |
| 26 | PJ Fleck | Minnesota | $23.3 Million |
| 27 | Hugh Freeze | Auburn | $20.3 Million |
| 28 | Willie Fritz | Houston | $19 Million |
| 29 | Sherrone Moore | Michigan | $18 Million |
| 30 | Mike Locksley | Maryland | $17.3 Million |
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