OXFORD, Miss. (WAFB) \u2014 The excitement of a playoff gameday at the Grove couldn\u2019t mask the bitter disappointment among Ole Miss fans still reeling from Lane Kiffin\u2019s sudden departure to LSU in December, part of a record-breaking year that saw universities pay $228 million in buyouts to coaches they fired.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it was a terrible decision,\u201d said one fan tailgating before the December 20 game against Tulane. \u201cAnd I\u2019m pretty disappointed that I thought he was a better guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The anger was palpable across Oxford\u2019s campus, with fans expressing their fury in no uncertain terms about their former coach\u2019s loyalty.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no way a coach should be able to leave a team in the middle of the year. Especially to an in-conference rival. It\u2019s ridiculous,\u201d said Jack Bouvier, an Ole Miss fan.<\/p>\n
The I-TEAM found that since 2004, more than $1.1 billion dollars has been paid to fired coaches, leaving universities on the hook for much of that money.<\/p>\n
Record-breaking buyout year<\/p>\n
Kiffin\u2019s dramatic departure at the end of 2025 shook college football fans across America as teams chase gridiron glory. He replaced one of the 15 head coaches fired in 2025, with contracted buyouts worth a total of $228 million \u2014 the largest buyout total in college athletics history.<\/p>\n
The top contracted buyout of the year went to LSU\u2019s Brian Kelly, who was abruptly fired following an abysmal performance against Texas A&M, losing 49-25 in October. <\/p>\n
Emails to former LSU Athletic Director Scott Woodward obtained by the I-TEAM show fans demanded the university make a change while the game was still in progress.<\/p>\n
\u201cFire Brian Kelly now! This [expletive] is pathetic what I\u2019m watching… I can\u2019t deal with it no more,\u201d one email read.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou and Brian Kelly do not even deserve to run Northwestern State, much less LSU…. You have about a year until you can\u2019t even eat at a restaurant in Louisiana,\u201d read another email sent to Woodard.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrian Kelly played you like a fiddle,\u201d a fan wrote in another email.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey Scott… It\u2019s time to move on from Brian Kelly. The defense is a mess…the offense is just putrid… The efforts inconsistent, and we\u2019ve lost our edge,\u201d stated another email.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am writing to you as a proud alumnus…committed season ticket holder…avid attendee…and a significant financial contributor….I urge the university to act swiftly and thoughtfully in initiating a transition from Coach Kelly\u2019s tenure,\u201d wrote someone who identified themselves as a significant donor and season ticket holder. <\/p>\n
Within hours of these emails flooding Woodward\u2019s inbox, Kelly was gone. His contracted buyout: $54 million, the second largest in college football history.<\/p>\n
LSU wasn\u2019t finished paying. The university also had to send money to Oxford, as Kiffin\u2019s new contract required LSU to pay hundreds of thousands to Ole Miss for his buyout and playoff wins. Kiffin\u2019s new LSU contract is now the second-highest in college football, worth $91 million.<\/p>\n
SEC leads costly trend<\/p>\n
The SEC was on the hook for $138.6 million for five coaches not to work in 2025. Beyond Kelly\u2019s $54 million buyout, Kentucky\u2019s Mark Stoops $38 million, Florida\u2019s Billy Napier $21 million, Auburn\u2019s Hugh Freeze nearly $16 million, and Arkansas\u2019 Sam Pittman $9.3 million.<\/p>\n
If Arkansas had waited longer and the school\u2019s win record declined, a reduced buyout agreement could have kicked in, saving the school $3.6 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe coaches have all the leverage right now whether they are leaving or coming in,\u201d said David Ridpath, a professor of sports business at Ohio University.<\/p>\n
Nationwide impact<\/p>\n
The I-TEAM analyzed the amounts and compared them to the cost of college tuition at one of the nation\u2019s most prestigious Ivy League colleges. We found the record $228 million in 2025 buyouts could fund the entire 1,700-student freshman class at Harvard, covering tuition, room and board, with $100 million left over.<\/p>\n
Other conferences also faced substantial buyouts. Jonathan Smith of Michigan State had a buyout of 33.5 million, Mike Gundy of Oklahoma State, $15 million, and Justin Wilcox of Cal Berkeley, $10.9 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s spend, spend, spend. It\u2019s not managing the dollars like the rest of the university has to,\u201d Ridpath said. \u201cIt\u2019s about time we figure out a way working through congress is a way to force college athletics to manage revenue better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luxury perks and incentives<\/p>\n
The I-TEAM reviewed the largest contracts from last year\u2019s fired coaches and found money built in for courtesy vehicles from luxury car dealerships, access to private planes, golf memberships, millions of dollars worth of incentives for winning postseason games, and hundreds of thousands of dollars if the team achieves a 2.7 GPA.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve driven ourselves off the cliff, and Congress is going to have to rescue us,\u201d Ridpath said.<\/p>\n
Calls for reform<\/p>\n
Ridpath believes Congress is the only hope to rein in bloated spending. Here\u2019s why: Last year, anti-trust lawsuits successfully challenged the NCAA\u2019s rules, forcing the NCAA to view college sports as a commercial enterprise. A federal judge found that rules limiting earnings for athletes are considered economic restraints. <\/p>\n
In 2025, the NCAA was ordered to pay $2.8 billion in damages to athletes from 2016 to 2024 because a judge found the NCAA limited the earning potential of college athletes. Ridpath believes what happened will directly impact coaches\u2019 contracts. <\/p>\n
\u201cI hate to say we need to rely on the government for anything, but that\u2019s where we are,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we will need national standards to bring some sanity back to college athletics.\u201d<\/p>\n
Back at the Grove, many Rebels echoed Ridpath\u2019s demand for reform as Lane Kiffin\u2019s abrupt exit has fans buzzing with a painful sting of betrayal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s messed up to leave your boys. You get to the playoffs for the first time in school history, and then you\u2019re up and out and just don\u2019t even see a thrill with them,\u201d said Corey Joyner.<\/p>\n
In October, U.S. Representative Michael Baumgartner of Washington introduced a bill that would limit annual compensation and cap buyouts of any athletics department employee. The measure was introduced in the House and referred to the House Committee on Education, where it currently sits.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 Gray Media Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OXFORD, Miss. (WAFB) \u2014 The excitement of a playoff gameday at the Grove couldn\u2019t mask the bitter disappointment…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,2357,97890,22339,97887,97888,97886,7249,97889,49,48,97891],"class_list":{"0":"post-672723","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-impact","10":"tag-inform","11":"tag-inspire","12":"tag-investigate-tv","13":"tag-investigate-tv-plus","14":"tag-investigatetv","15":"tag-investigation","16":"tag-investigators","17":"tag-ncaa","18":"tag-ncaa-football","19":"tag-solutions-based-journalism"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115885010014929397","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}