The college football coaching carousel is on pace to set records this season. Nearly a dozen coaches have been fired during the 2025 season, with LSU's Brian Kelly among the chaos. Other big-name programs to show their head coaches the door include Penn State's Brian Kelly, Florida's Billy Napier, and Auburn's Hugh Freeze. As is true in all of these cases, buyouts worth millions and millions of dollars were involved.
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It's not uncommon for the firing of a college football head coach to depend solely on the buyout situation. Schools will oftentimes hold on to a coach for longer simply because they are too expensive to fire. However, we've seen a bit of a shift in that approach this season, as coaches with huge price tags have been fired in the middle of the season.
Brian Kelly's massive $53.3 million buyout is the largest of the group this season, and his buyout situation continues to look even more embarrassing when looking at how other fired coaches stack up.
Brian Kelly's buyout sets records for all the wrong reasons
LSU fired Kelly just 3.5 years into his 10-year contract that he signed back in 2021. He is owed approximately $53.5 million in buyout money, which is the second-largest buyout in college football history. Only Jimbo Fisher's $76.8 million buyout at Texas A&M exceeded Kelly's. Scott Woodward was responsible for both of those hires, although Ross Bjork gave Fisher a contract extension that resulted in Fisher's historic buyout.
When looking at Kelly's buyout compared to other coaches fired in 2025, it just makes Kelly look worse. According to Front Office Sports, buyouts for the 11 fired coaches have reached a whopping $185 million so far this season. Kelly's $53.3 million buyout accounts for over a quarter of that total. James Franklin's buyout came with a price tag of $49.7 million, which is the only other buyout even in the ballpark of Kelly's.
Billy Napier's buyout at Florida is the third-highest at $21.2 million, while Hugh Freeze's buyout at Auburn was $15.4 million. Rounding out the top-five was Mike Gundy's buyout of $15 million from Oklahoma State. Sam Pittman's buyout at Arkansas is the lowest of the SEC coaches thus far, coming with a price of $9.8 million.
Kelly leaves Baton Rouge without having led the Tigers to an SEC title or an appearance in the College Football Playoff. The previous three coaches at LSU (Nick Saban, Les Miles, Ed Orgeron) all brought National Championships to LSU by Year 4 of their respective tenures. Kelly leaves LSU without coming close, while also hitting the school for a substantial payout.