Billy Napier was named as the new college football coach at James Madison after a three, almost four year tenure at Florida. The Gators are essentially paying him to stack NIL money in Harrisonburg.
He does not have to worry about finances so all of his bonuses can go right back to his program.
This might not be the first time in college football history where this has happened but I cannot name another. It is, at the very least, the first time that a coach has said the quiet part out loud.
Florida is going to pay Billy Napier’s buyout.
Napier was hired by Florida in 2022 after an extremely successful four-year run at Louisiana-Lafayette (or whatever they want to be called these days) with three-straight seasons of 10 wins or greater. He could not replicate that success in Gainesville.
The Gators finished at 6-7 and 5-7 in Napier’s first two seasons at the helm. They won four-straight games against ranked No. 22 LSU, No. 9 Ole Miss, Florida State, and a bowl game against Tulane to finish at 8-5 in year three. Nobody saw it coming. Napier saved his job.
And then Florida went 3-4 to being 2025 with an upset loss to USF at home.
It fired its head coach near the end of October. It will pay him approximately $21 million not to coach over the next four years. Most of it was already paid out up front.
- $10.6 million due Nov. 19, 2025 (PAID)
- $2.65 million due July 15, 2026
- $2.65 million due July 15, 2027
- $2.65 million due July 15, 2028
- $2.65 million due July 15, 2029
There is no offset for the buyout. Billy Napier is guaranteed every last penny.
James Madison can put the money toward NIL.
Napier was hired to replace Bob Chesney as the head football coach at James Madison University on Dec. 4. He signed a five-year contract.
His deal includes a base salary of $500,000, a retention bonus of $140,000, a fundraising bonus of $315,000 and $50,000 in licensing royalties for media and proprietary rights for an annual guarantee of $1,050,000. The Dukes will also give him $12,960 per year for his car and his phone.
All things considered, $1,050,000 is not that much money in the Sun Belt. The former head coach at Florida is only the third-highest paid coach in the conference after the ouster of Tim Beck at Coastal.
This is where things get interesting.
Billy Napier is not worried about his salary at James Madison because Florida is paying him a base salary of $2.65 million per year for the next four years. And he already got paid a lump sum of more than $10 million. Money is not a concern. Salary is not important.
As a result, Napier can give all of his bonus money right back to the program.
“I’ve made more money than I ever dreamed of making,” he said. “We’ve negotiated a scenario where a lot of the money maybe they wanted to pay me is being paid to other people, or we’re going to put that into rev share. All my incentives are going into a discretionary fund for the university.”
The Gators are basically subsidizing the Dukes because they fired their coach.
Oh, and Napier — who was fired in large part because would not give up play-calling duties at Florida — recently said he is going to let an offensive coordinator call plays at James Madison. The coordinator will have “autonomy.” The program also has more money to pay the coordinator.