College football’s regular season is roughly halfway finished, and the coaching carousel is set to spin faster than ever.

Some of the game’s biggest jobs are open after Arkansas, Penn State, and Florida among others all fired their coaches after slow starts. LSU entered the fray on Sunday when it parted ways with coach Brian Kelly. 

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 owes James Franklin.

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. 

The Oklahoman

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. 

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