It pays to be a bad college-football coach

These days, getting fired is the best thing that can happen to a college-football coach.

Hugh Freeze is the latest head coach to get voted off the NCAA college-football island. With a 15-19 record in nearly 3 seasons at Auburn University and a loss Saturday where they barely mustered 3 points against Kentucky, the Tigers fell to 1-5 in the SEC. A record like that in such a revered conference can only mean one thing in 2025: termination.

As they say on Survivor, the tribe has spoken. Auburn will have to buy Freeze out for $15.4 million. It is about the same dollar amount they forked over when they canned their last coach 8 games into his second season. In total, Freeze drives away with a cool $39 million after working for only half of his six-year deal.

But Freeze’s buyout looks paltry compared to what’s happening elsewhere in the NCAA.

Consider Penn State. The Nittany Lions began the year ranked second in the country. After a 3-game losing spiral, capped off by an embarrassing loss to Northwestern University, the university fired head coach James Franklin. He had spent 11 years in Happy Valley and his exit package was not cheap: it will cost the school (and by extension, the state of Pennsylvania) almost $50 million.

The coaching carousel hot seat does not stop there. The University of Florida fired Billy Napier. His buyout: $21.2 million, half of which is owed within 30 days of his departure. Then he continues to receive payments until 2029. Louisiana State University just fired Brian Kelly. Buyout: $54 million.

In recent years, much of the conversation surrounding financial gain in college sports has revolved around players and their name, image and likeness deals. But with all these firings, many fans are asking: How did coaches become so expensive?

“A lot of the time, they’re being pulled from other great jobs,” a professional-football agent and manager said about the exorbitant buyout packages. “So, it takes a ton of financial security for them to leave. Leverage.”

So the coaches have massive negotiating power and can get their bag even if they fail. And most coaches are going to fail – that’s the nature of college football. In the meantime, you can be like Bill Belichick – an abject catastrophe at 3-5 and 14^th in the ACC and pocketing $10 million a year.

Is all this cash making college coaching the desired location for the most-accomplished coaches? Possibly. But it’s creating a never-ending cycle.  

With these massive expenditures for essentially failure, and big bucks thrown Bill Belichick’s way to lead UNC’s program, is college coaching the new desired destination for accomplished coaches because of the money? Possibly. But it creates a never-ending cycle.

“It’s ultimately an arms race, and athletic directors don’t mind spending other people’s money to have the newest and best,” TJ Pittinger, host of the podcast College Football Addiction said. “Buyouts increase to lock coaches in when other programs flirt with a coach. So they go up nearly every year and then when you’re stuck with a guy who sucks, you’re caught with your pants down basically.”

But don’t cry too much for the wealthy coaches. Ironically, they all somehow land on their feet…just a lot richer. James Franklin is reportedly set to sign a deal as Virginia Tech’s new head coach and Brian Kelly is rumored to be a top prospect for the Arkansas Razorbacks job. Proving in America one school’s departing trash is another’s treasure…with a lot of dollar signs attached.