The Largest Known Buyouts Currently On the Books in College Football and Men’s Basketball

Where Mike Norvell lands among the top buyouts after Florida State fired him on Sunday.

Mike Norvell, who was fired Sunday, wields one of the largest known buyouts in college football. | Alicia Devine/Tallahassee Democrat / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

That college athletic programs pay coaches once-unfathomable gobs of money to lead their teams is well-known even to casual fans.

But did you know programs pay coaches similar gobs of money, in theory, to not lead their teams?

Like seemingly everything in college athletics, discussions of buyout clauses have increased exponentially since the 2010s. As salaries have increased, agents have negotiated larger and larger exit fees for their clients, enabling programs to start fresh after shorter and shorter tenures—but only after cutting enormous checks.

Here is a look at the largest known buyouts in college football and men’s college basketball, with some accompanying notes and observations. The numbers come from USA Today’s annual databases, last updated in football on Oct. 8, 2025, and in men’s basketball on April 8.

College football’s 10 current largest known coaching buyouts

COACH	BUYOUT AS OF DEC. 1, 2025
Kirby Smart, Georgia	$105.1 million
Ryan Day, Ohio State	$70.9 million
Kalen DeBoer, Alabama	$60.8 million
Steve Sarkisian, Texas	$60.3 million
Dabo Swinney, Clemson	$60 million
Mike Norvell, Florida State	$58.7 million
Dan Lanning, Oregon	$56.7 million
Curt Cignetti, Indiana	$56.7 million
Matt Rhule, Nebraska	$49.6 milllion
Bret Bielema, Illinois	$49.5 million

Of the top 10 buyout holders, six were in the top 10 in the sport in salary at the time of compilation (Smart, Day, DeBoer, Sarkisian, Swinney and Lanning). Rhule was No. 15, Cignetti was No. 18 (he’s since received a massive raise), Bielema was No. 19, and Norvell was No. 45.

When the list was put together, LSU still employed coach Brian Kelly, and Kelly’s $53.3 million buyout ranked No. 9 (the Tigers fired him last season and he’s understandably not coaching this year). Coaches with top-10 salaries at that time outside of the top 10 in buyouts included USC’s Lincoln Riley, North Carolina’s Bill Belichick, Mississippi’s Lane Kiffin (who later left for LSU), Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz, Tennessee’s Josh Heupel and Kentucky’s Mark Stoops (later fired).

Riley, interestingly, had no buyout reported in the database (USC, it is worth noting, is a private school; contract terms may have been tougher to obtain). Other well-compensated coaches with no buyout reported include Miami’s Mario Cristobal (also a private school), Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman (ditto), Pitt’s Pat Narduzzi, and TCU’s Sonny Dykes (private).

Men’s college basketball’s 10 current largest known coaching buyouts

It is difficult to imagine a situation in which UConn would look to move on from Dan Hurley, and it would cost them a pretty penny to do so. | Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images

COACH	BUYOUT AS OF APRIL 8, 2026
Dan Hurley, UConn	$34.8 million
Todd Golden, Florida	$34 million
Brad Underwood, Illinois	$32.7 million
Fred Hoiberg, Nebraska	$32.5 million
Nate Oats, Alabama	$26.9 million
Buzz Williams, Maryland	$25.9 million
T.J. Otzelberger, Iowa State	$25 million
Tommy Lloyd, Arizona	$23.9 million
Chris Beard, Mississippi	$23.6 million
Bill Self, Kansas	$23.1 million

As was the case in football, six of the sport’s 10 largest buyouts are due to its top-10 salary earners. The four coaches outside the top 10 in salary with top-10 buyouts are Underwood (No. 12), Williams (No. 17), Hoiberg (No. 21) and Otzelberger (No. 23). The four coaches for whom vice versa is true: Arkansas’s John Calipari, Houston’s Kelvin Sampson and Tennessee’s Rick Barnes.

The five most handsomely compensated coaches with no buyout in the database are Baylor’s Scott Drew, Purdue’s Matt Painter, TCU’s Jamie Dixon (who was reported as having a now-quaint $8 million buyout way back in 2019), Penn State’s Mike Rhoades (reported by Will Horstman of the Daily Collegian to be $9 million now and $6 million after next year) and Shaka Smart of Marquette.

Both Drew and Painter have been at their respective schools for decades (plural). Smart has only been with the Golden Eagles for five years, but voluntarily gave up a prestigious assignment (the Longhorns) to coach there.

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