Les Miles, LSU Agree to $1.5 Million Buyout Settlement
Former head coach Les Miles and LSU have agreed to a $1.5 million buyout settlement that further frees Miles up to pursue a head coaching job elsewhere this offseason.
Miles signed an 11-plus-year contract with the Tigers in 2005 but was fired in September 2016 after starting the season 2–2. At the time of his firing, Miles was owed $9 million to be paid over six years in monthly installments around $133,000.
LSU still owes Miles $6.5 million under the original agreement, which would have been binding until 2023. Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics Joe Alleva said the most important factor in negotiating a new agreement was to give all parties an incentive to move on.
"It's time for both parties to move forward," Alleva said in a school statement. "One of the challenges of the buyout that was in place was there just wasn't a lot of incentive to move on to other things. We were looking to provide that and Coach Miles and his representatives also were ready."
In Miles's first season at the helm, LSU won the SEC West after going 10-1 in the regular season. The Tigers defeated Miami in the Peach Bowl that season. LSU went on to beat Ohio State in the 2008 national championship before returning to the title game again in 2012, where it lost to Alabama. Miles had a 114-34 record during his time at LSU.
Miles has been loosely tied to the rumor mill surrounding the Kansas job, which will formally come open at the end of the season when the school parts ways with David Beaty. New Jayhawks athletic Jeff Long knows Miles from their shared time at Michigan in the late 1980s and early ’90s, when Long was an administrator and Miles was the Wolverines’ offensive line coach.
