It costs a lot of money to hire a great college football coach. It costs nearly as much to fire a bad one.
The economy of college football demands enormous payments to the coaches who inevitably wind up the highest-paid public employees in their respective states. But those contracts also come with a parachute should they fail. Massive buyouts mean a struggling playcaller can’t be canned without taking a big portion of their promised cash with them. While those severance payments are typically funded by deep-pocketed boosters, it still creates a cognitive dissonance when you see someone collecting eight figures *not* to do their job.
And yes, an eight-figure buyout is the standard for the NCAA’s top football programs.
Fortunately, we’ve got data that tells us just who is in the most trouble if they need to fire an underwhelming head coach without cause. Forty-six coaches will earn more than $10 million if they’re dismissed after or during the 2023 season. That means Justin Wilcox’s $20.7 million buyout at California didn’t even crack the top 25.
This list comes from USA TODAY Sports‘ college football head coach salaries database. It does not include data from private schools, as they are exempt from reporting that information. So which coaches would be the most financially painful to fire?
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 tag=421393249]