Get paid millions to leave your job?
For more than a decade, Paste BN has tracked the pay of head college football coaches and their assistants.
2023 looked a little different from other seasons, with numerous high-profile coaching changes at schools like Alabama and Texas A&M. Paste BN Sports Reporter Steve Berkowitz got to work examining the annual coaching carousel – not only the amount schools owe when they fire coaches, but also the cost coaches owe when they break their contract to take a job at another school. The latter are routinely covered by the new employer.
And the totals add up fast.
👋 Nicole Fallert here, and welcome to Your Week, our newsletter exclusively for Paste BN subscribers (that's you!). This week, we talk with Berkowitz about his analysis of major-college athletics spending on coaching and staff changes.
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Schools set to pay at least $200 million in buyouts to hire and fire college football coaches
Can you imagine receiving millions of dollars to not do your job?
Berkowitz's analysis of public school spending on coaches and staff changes showed schools routinely cover buyouts. This is increasingly pricey for schools that fill a head coaching position by hiring another school’s head coach. And it has become more common for schools seeking to fill assistant coaching positions.
These payments come in addition to schools paying buyouts to coaches they fire, or to assistants they do not retain after a head coaching change. Major-college athletics departments likely will end up spending a combined total of at least $200 million in football coaching and staff changes during and after the 2023 season, his analysis found.
"While some coaches are contractually obligated to try to get another job that will offset what they are owed by the school that fired them, you have examples here in which some coaches are being paid millions, even tens of millions, not to coach," Berkowitz said. "And you have examples where coaches face no financial consequence for breaching contracts."
Paste BN Sports’ estimated total takes into account offsets known so far (totals for 2023 will not be known for years) and still found more than $191 million in active firing and hiring costs through records from public schools. Berkowitz broke down for you what this number includes.
What does this mean for college football? Berkowitz said the findings are a matter of accountability:
"These are some of the highest-paid public employees in not only their respective states, but also the nation," he said. "Nearly all of this occurs in the broader context of colleges and athletics programs getting the revenue used to pay these coaches on a tax-exempt basis."
Thank you
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Best wishes,
Nicole Fallert