Firing a football coach is tough now

Published 12:00 am Monday, November 9, 2026

By Jeff Brasel/Harrison Daily Times

My dream job is to be a head football coach for a season in a Power Four conference.

Because, I don’t have to be very good at coaching, I just have to be good at interviewing and recruiting.
Coaches that don’t do a good job are dismissed. They get a payout that is amazing.
Jimbo Fisher of Texas A&M leads the way. He stunk and got paid $76.8 million dollars over a few years. Let that sink in. That is more money than anyone reading this column will ever make.
Out of the top five buyouts, three of those are in the SEC.
The second one is Brian Kelly. Kelly came to LSU from Notre Dame. He was “amazing” at Notre Dame so he would lead LSU to the top and many national championships. Well, now Tiger Nation is paying Kelly $53.8 million over time for not being a good coach in the SEC.
Mike Norvell received the third largest payout. Florida State paid him $50.0 million for stinking this season. After starting this season with a 3-5 record, FSU fired Norvell on Sunday.
James Franklin left Vanderbilt to go to Penn State. Now, he is $49M richer because he could interview.
The fifth biggest payout came from Kentucky. That traditional football school.
They had some success with Mark Stoops. They gave him a large contract and then things went south, just like their basketball team.
The Wildcats paid Stoops $38M to leave Lexington.
I would have left every one of these towns for a lot less.
The buyout of coaches in football has taken a big turn.
Now, college football is expensive…very expensive.
It can cost $30M to pay a football team that will be in the middle of the pack and in the lower level of the Top 25.
A solid quarterback is $3-4M, but then you have to pay an offensive line in order to protect them. That comes at a cost of about $2M for all of the players.
The problem is you are paying a coaching staff roughly $10-20M a year and then the players.
Then you fire a coach. Luckily, Sam Pittman’s buyout at the University of Arkansas was only about $8.5M.
Arkansas is not in the same boat as Texas A&M. Those Aggies are highly entertaining.
They expected to win a national title this year…or at least compete.
Aggie Nation is paying their head coach, Mike Elko around $11.5M a year. The school has committed to pay their assistant coaches a total of $11-13M a year.
The A&M name, likeness, image deal for the season is around $48M. Yes, that is correct.
That is roughly $71M a year.
But wait, there is more. There is the Fischer buyout of $76.8M.
That is a lot of problems for an athletic director.
When looking at the SEC standings, the Top 10 expected Aggie is sitting with a 1-4 league record. They are tied with Arkansas. The Hogs were their only league win of the year.
The Aggies are 4-4 overall.
College football is a very big business. I am just asking for one year as a head football coach..maybe Texas A&M.
Jeff Brasel is the sports and managing editor and general manager of the Harrison Daily Times. E-mail him at jeffb@harrisondaily.com or follow him at X.com/jeffbrasel.