The 12 Biggest Buyouts College Football Teams Have Coughed Up To Fire A Head Coach

There aren’t many companies that like to pay their employees not to work, but there are plenty of college football teams that have coughed up a significant amount of dough in order to kick a head coach to the curb. That includes the guys who received a very hefty sum by securing one of the biggest buyouts in the history of the sport.

No schools have stomached a bigger buyout to fire a head coach than these programs

There are a ton of people who would be more than happy to serve as the head coach of a college football team if given the opportunity, and most schools are equally willing to show a skipper the door if they’re not living up to expectations.

However, most of those coaches are able to negotiate a contract that mandates a sizeable buyout if they’re fired before it runs its course—including some who were bad at their job to the point where a school was willing to fork over an eight-figure sum to make them go away.

Before we dive in, it’s worth noting some of these deals were structured in a way where the final payment ended up being smaller after a coach accepted a new job somewhere else, but I’m just going to take the initial number into consideration.

12. Bobby Petrino—Louisville: $14.1 Million

Bobby Petrino originally served as the offensive coordinator at Louisville in the 1990s before getting his first job as a head coach when he was hired by the team in 2003. That ushered in a four-year run where the Cardinals went 41-9 under his watch and ended the season ranked at #6—including a 12-1 campaign in 2006 that led to his short-lived stint as the coach of the Falcons.

Petrino quit midway through his first season in Atlanta before heading to Arkansas, and he had the Razorbacks trending in the right direction before he was fired over a bizarre infidelity scandal. He landed back at Louisville in 2014 following a one-and-done stint at Western Kentucky, and he fared pretty well over his first four seasons while falling short of his previous heights at the school.

The Cardinals had gone 34-18 following his return before the wheels fell off in 2018, and Petrino was paid more than $14 million to go away after they got off to a 2-8 start en route to finishing at 2-10.

11. Scott Frost—Nebraska: $15 Million

Nebraska poached Scott Frost to replace Mike Riley after the former led UCF to a perfect 13-0 record in 2017 during his second season with the Knights. The Cornhusters were obviously hoping he would be able to return the program to its former glory, but that never came close to being the case.

The team never posted a winning record with Frost at the helm, and he’d gone 16-31 when he was fired three games into his fifth season in 2022. The school would have saved $7.5 million if it had waited a few more weeks to fire him, but the loss to Georgia Southern that served as the nail in the coffin was egregious to the point where it immediately pulled the trigger.

10. Art Briles—Baylor: $15.1 Million

It took Art Briles a few years to find his footing after taking over at Baylor in 2008, but the Bears had transformed into a force to be reckoned with by the time the 2010s rolled around.

Briles led Baylor to back-to-back 11-2 seasons in 2013 and 2014 before they finished at 10-3 in 2015. However, his time at the school was also finished due to the sexual assault reporting scandal that led to him being fired before the two sides negotiated a settlement that saw him get paid a little more than $15 million.

9. Tom Herman—Texas: $15.4 Million

It seemed like it was only a matter of time until Tom Herman would leave Houston for a more prestigious program after the Cougars went 22-4 during the two seasons he spent as their head coach, and he ended up heading west to Austin after Texas hired him to replace Charlie Strogn heading into the 2017 season.

The Longhorns went 7-6 during his first year, and it looked like they might be on their way to being Back after going 10-4 in 2018. Unfortunately, that did not end up being the case, and he was fired after a 7-3 campaign in 2020 while going 32-18 during his four seasons with the team.

8. Tom Allen—Indiana: $15.5 Million

Indiana was firmly known as a basketball school when Tom Allen took over in 2017, and that remained the case during a seven-year run where the Hoosiers only posted a winning record two times while going 33–49 under his watch.

Allen got a buyout to the tune of $15.5 million when he was fired following a 3-9 campaign in 2023, and the school has certainly reaped the benefits based on what Curt Cignetti has done since replacing him.

7. Ed Orgeron—LSU: $16.9 Million

Ed Orgeron had a pretty meteoric rise at LSU after replacing Les Miles midway through the season in 2016. He led the 15-0 Tigers to a national championship during his third full year at the helm in Baton Rouge, but the good times came to a pretty swift end.

LSU went 5-5 in 2020, and they were sitting at 4-3 the following year when the school announced its plans to move on from Orgeron at the end of the season. He declined to coach in the bowl game they qualified for after going 6-6 and departed with a 51-20 record overall.

6. Willie Taggart—Florida State: $18 Million

Willie Taggart had some big shoes to fill at Florida State when he replaced Jimbo Fisher (who we’ll be discussing in a moment), a man who found himself facing a similar situation after inheriting the Seminoles from the legendary Bobby Bowden.

Fisher was able to rise to the occasion, but Taggart failed to follow suit after taking control in 2018. FSU went 5-7 that year and was sitting at 4-5 in 2019 when he was fired after losing to Miami to bring his ill-fated tenure to an end.

5. Charlie Weis—Notre Dame: $19 Million

Charlie Weis originally made a name for himself while serving as the offensive coordinator for the Patriots, and he won three Super Bowl rings while working alongside Bill Belichick and Tom Brady in New England before Notre Dame gave him his first job as a head coach in 2005.

The Fighting Irish went 9-3 during his first year in South Bend and 10-3 in his second, but they imploded with a 3-9 showing in 2007. Weis got two more chances before his time with Notre Dame came to an end in 2009 after five seasons; they went 35-27 while he was in charge.

4. Gus Malzahn—Auburn: $21.4 Million

Gus Malzahn coached Arkansas State to a 9-3 record during the one-and-done stint that ushered in his career as a head coach at the college level in 2012, and he picked up where he left off after heading to Auburn the following year as the Tigers went 12-2 and lost to Florida State in the national championship.

However, that was the high-water mark for a man who spent eight years at Auburn before he was fired following the 2020 season after going 68-35 during his time at the school.

3. James Franklin—Penn State: $49 Million

James Franklin made Penn State a perennial contender during a tenure that began in 2014, but he also had a reputation for failing to take care of business in the marquee matchups where it mattered most.

The Nittany Lions finished with at least 10 wins in six of the eleven full seasons where Franklin was at the helm, but the team decided to part ways with him after falling to 3-3 following a 3-0 start to the 2025 season thanks to losses to Oregon, UCLA, and Northwestern.

2. Brian Kelly—LSU: $54 Million

Brian Kelly had a 92-39 record during his 12 years as the head coach at Notre Dame, and while he was able to lead the Fighting Irish to the College Football Playoff on two occasions, he was unable to bring a national championship drought stretching back to 1988 to an end during his time in South Bend.

He defected to LSU ahead of the 2022 season after Ed Orgeron was fired, but he was never able to get the program to the heights it reached under his predecessor. He had a 5-3 record when he was fired as the head coach of the Tigers eight games into his fourth season in 2025 and ultimately finished with a 34-14 showing in Baton Rouge.

1. Jimbo Fisher—Texas A&M: $76.8 Million

Last, and certainly not least, we have what is firmly the largest buyout in college football history courtesy of Jimbo Fisher.

Texas A&M whipped up a national championship plaque with a date to be filled in later after Jimbo Fisher was hired in 2018 following an eight-year run at FSU where he led the Seminoles to a title. However, things did not end up panning out as hoped after he arrived in College Station.

Fisher landed a ten-year, $95 million contract extension with the Aggies after they went 9-1 during the COVID-shortened season in 2020, but it was all downhill from there. They started the 2022 season at #6 before plummeting out of the Top 25 during a six-game losing streak that unfolded following a shocking upset to Appalachian State in Week 2, and they pulled the plug the following year while sitting at 6-4.

Fisher ultimately finished with a 45-25 record and doesn’t seem in any rush to land another coaching job thanks in no small part to the approximately $77 million he’ll get for not doing anything.