Every week that goes by in college football, I’m starting to think I chose the wrong profession. Maybe there’s still time for me to quit this job, jump into the coaching world, do a terrible job and get fired.
That sounds like a great life goal, right?
Well, if it means I get to cash an eight-figure check, I’d kindly ask:
“Which door would you like me to walk out of?”
Another week goes by and another big name is off the board in the coaching world after Brian Kelly got canned at LSU.
If you remember from my column a few weeks ago about why preseason polls are worthless, that makes three of the top-15 preseason teams that have now fired their head coach — two in the SEC (Florida and LSU) and one in the Big Ten (Penn State).
This season has undoubtedly been the wildest coaching cycle we’ve ever seen in college football, and the sheer amount of money being thrown at these guys is insane.
As of now, there have been 10 head-coach firings and 12 total job openings headed into next season (Kent State and Stanford announced interim coaches before the 2025 season).
Here are three main reasons why someone has to stop this — and if not, I might try to be the next head coach somewhere.
Rewarding Failure
I’m not surprised by the timing of these firings. Athletic directors are forced to act this way because of the structure of the sport. It’s the business model they’re in.
Head coaches must be prepared for roster building in early December for the Early National Signing Day. Then comes the single transfer-portal window in mid-January. So teams have to hire their new coach before then to have a plan in place for both ENSD and the portal.
That’s why, in the NFL, most firings happen after the regular season — everyone operates under the same calendar. College football is different.
I don’t have a problem with the timing or the firings themselves. What I have a problem with is the money being paid to these coaches to fire them. It’s just plain absurd.
CBS Sports’ Brandon Marcello noted that the sport has already racked up a staggering $167.9 million in buyout money this season — and that total is only going higher. Schools are paying nearly $170 million for coaches not to work.
And that number could climb well past $200 million by the end of the season.
You hear all the time about athletic directors asking for more resources, but they’re throwing away a quarter of a billion dollars on coaches to not coach.
They’re rewarding failure.
Billy Napier went 22–23 at Florida and will pocket around $22 million. Sam Pittman was 32–32 at Arkansas and will pocket around $7 million. Brent Pry was 16–24 at Virginia Tech and will get $6 million.
Will Hall was 14–30 at Southern Miss and has pocketed $824,000 since his firing in 2024.
There’s no other job in the world where someone can do that poorly and walk away that rich.
In most careers, if you get laid off, you might get a week or two of severance for every year of service. If you made $100,000 and worked two years, you’d probably get about a month’s pay — maybe $6,000 or $7,000 — while you look for another job.
You’d never get $22 million. It’s unfair and ridiculous.
The “Win or Get Fired” Myth
In modern college football, there’s a myth that coaches just have to win to keep their jobs. Generally that’s true — but not this season.
Programs have shown they’re willing to float whatever money it takes to fire head coaches, even ones with good records.
Take LSU and Penn State as prime examples.
Brian Kelly went 34–14 at LSU, including an SEC West title. His firing wasn’t about wins — it was about culture, clashes and control. He was never a great fit in Baton Rouge, but he didn’t suddenly forget how to coach. Now he’s getting a $54 million check.
James Franklin went 104–45 at Penn State and kept the Nittany Lions nationally relevant, guiding the program out of the darkness that followed the Sandusky scandal. But his inability to win the “big one” ultimately cost him his job. Now he’s getting $49 million to leave.
Those jobs didn’t come open because of bad coaching. They came open because college football has lost patience — and perspective.
NIL and the transfer portal have changed everything. Teams like Penn State and LSU are realizing that schools once seen as automatic wins — Indiana, Vanderbilt — can compete with them now in ways they couldn’t a decade ago.
The Problem Is, We May Not Be Done
Mike Norvell at Florida State and Luke Fickell at Wisconsin are sitting on increasingly warm seats. If those dominoes fall, we’ll be staring at one of the biggest single-season coaching overhauls in modern college football.
At that point, you have to ask: Is there even enough coaching talent to fill these jobs?
We might be staring at $200-to-$250 million in buyout money by season’s end.
It’s no longer about building programs — it’s about managing optics. One bad season, one booster mutiny, and you’re gone, with $30 million in your pocket.
Until athletic directors stop paying for failure, college football will keep spiraling down the same financial black hole.
And with the carousel only starting to spin, one thing’s for sure: we haven’t seen the last $50 million office-cleaning bill.
