Winning in college football isn’t cheap. Schools spend millions to land the right coach, build a championship-caliber roster and keep their best players on campus.
But when things don’t go according to plan, moving on can be just as expensive — if not more so.
Just ask the four coaches who walked away with the largest severance packages in the sport’s history.
Welcome to the Mount Rushmore of college football coaching buyouts, where losing your job doesn’t mean losing your financial security.
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These four coaches combined to collect more than $215 million in buyout money, proving that while things didn’t go according to plan on the field, their contracts were working just fine.
And the money doesn’t stop there.
Rounding out the top 10 are Michigan State’s Jonathan Smith ($33 million), Auburn’s Gus Malzahn and Florida’s Billy Napier ($21 million each), Notre Dame’s Charlie Weis ($19 million), and Florida State’s Willie Taggart and LSU’s Ed Orgeron ($17 million each).
One important note: James Franklin was initially owed a $49 million buyout by Penn State after his October 2025 firing, but he ultimately negotiated a $9 million settlement before taking the head coaching job at Virginia Tech.
With that out of the way, let’s count down the four biggest golden parachutes in college football history:
No. 4: Mark Stoops — $37 million
Mark Stoops spent 13 seasons trying to make Kentucky a consistent SEC contender, and to his credit, he raised the bar, including making a bowl game every season from 2016 to 2023.
He led the Wildcats to 10-win seasons in 2018 and 2021, but the program struggled to maintain that momentum before Kentucky decided it was time for a fresh start, firing Stoops after the 2025 season. He went 82-80 during his time in Lexington.
The winningest coach in program history, Stoops walked away with about $37 million. He was under contract through June 2031 and was owed 75% of his remaining salary when let go.
No. 3: Mike Norvell — $50 million
Mike Norvell gave Florida State one of its most memorable seasons in recent history, going undefeated during the 2023 regular season and winning the ACC Championship Game.
The good times didn’t last. The Seminoles went from 13-1 in 2023 (the loss coming against Georgia in the Orange Bowl after FSU didn’t make the College Football Playoff) to 2-10 in 2024, followed by another losing season (5-7) in 2025 and more struggles (3-5) in 2026.
After last week’s 36-24 loss to Clemson in Tallahassee, the FSU administration had seen enough. Norvell went 41-39 in his seven seasons with the Seminoles, but was only 4-17 in ACC play over the past three seasons and hadn’t led Florida State to a win outside Doak Campbell Stadium since the 2023 conference title game.
Under contract through the 2031 season, Norvell’s buyout accounts for approximately 85% of his remaining salary.
No. 2: Brian Kelly — $54 million
Brian Kelly arrived at LSU in November 2021 with a massive contract and equally massive expectations. After all, this was a program that had won a national title two seasons earlier.
Kelly delivered an SEC West title in 2022 and a Heisman Trophy winner in Jayden Daniels, but the Tigers never made the College Football Playoff under his direction.
Following a disappointing start to the 2025 season and a 24-point home loss to Texas A&M, LSU decided to move on, firing Kelly the next day.
Kelly, who went 34-14 during his time in Baton Rouge, was under contract through 2031, with LSU obligated to pay 90% of his remaining base salary and supplemental compensation, plus a prorated longevity bonus.
No. 1: Jimbo Fisher — $77 million
There’s getting fired, and then there’s getting fired like Jimbo Fisher.
Texas A&M handed Fisher a massive contract extension in 2021, hoping the former national championship-winning coach at FSU would turn the Aggies into a perennial title contender.
Instead, the program never reached the College Football Playoff, never won the SEC West under Fisher and went 45-25 during his six seasons in College Station.
In mid-November 2023, Texas A&M pulled the plug, firing Fisher with eight years remaining on his contract, which was fully guaranteed. That meant he was entitled to 100% of the remaining money through the 2031 season, regardless of whether he landed another coaching job.
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Mike Garbett is a content specialist working with McClatchy’s Content Innovation Lab.