Former LSU coach Brian Kelly’s $54 million buyout would deliver the sum of money owed to FBS head soccer coaches fired this season to $167.7 million, based on publicly out there information and stories.
Kelly’s buyout, which continues to be being negotiated with LSU, is the very best of the 2025 season thus far, topping the $49 million owed to Penn State’s ex-coach James Franklin, who was fired on Oct. 12.
Additionally included within the $167.7 million:
$21 million for Billy Napier, fired from Florida Oct. 19.
$15 million for Mike Gundy, fired from Oklahoma State Sept 23.
$9.8 million owned to Sam Pittman, fired from Arkansas Sept. 28.
$6 million for Brent Pry, fired from Virginia Tech Sept. 14.
$5 million for DeShaun Foster, fired from UCLA Sept. 14.
$4 million for Trent Bray, fired from Oregon State Oct. 12.
$2.4 million for Trent Dilfer, fired from UAB Oct. 12.
$1.5 million for Jay Norvell, fired from Colorado State Oct. 19.
Buyout totals are topic to alter in sure circumstances; for instance, if Kelly or Franklin land new jobs, the faculties that fired them owe them much less cash. Napier’s contract with Florida, then again, didn’t embody offset language, and half of his buyout is owed to him inside 30 days of his firing.
Kelly’s buyout is the second largest in school soccer historical past, behind Texas A&M’s report $76 million buyout of Jimbo Fisher in 2023. Each coaches had been employed by present LSU athletic director Scott Woodward, who ran the Texas A&M athletic division from 2016 to 2019.
“We had excessive hopes that [Kelly] would lead us to a number of SEC and nationwide championships throughout his time in Baton Rouge,” Woodward stated when he introduced the firing, which got here a day after the Tigers’ 49-25 loss to Texas A&M. “Finally, the success on the stage that LSU calls for merely didn’t materialize, and I made the choice to make a change after final evening’s sport.
The $168.1 million applies to coaches who’ve been fired because the begin of the 2025 season and doesn’t embody coaches who had been fired over the offseason.