Several SEC schools paid big bucks for coaches to not coach in 2014

Auburn last won a national championship in football in 2010. On top of that, the Tigers, who lost 34-31 to Florida State in the 2013 BCS National Championship Game, have not had consecutive 10-win seasons since 1988-89.

But as it turns out, Auburn did indeed win a national title two years ago in another “sport,” when the school paid more than $4.8 million in severance to fired coaches who included Gene Chizik, who was canned in 2012, while its athletic department finished 2014 with a deficit of more than $17 million, according to a Washington Post report. The buyout amount was the highest among Power 5 athletic departments that year, and the deficit was the second-highest.

In 2013-14, Auburn paid Gus Malzahn $4.3 million to coach its football team, according to an earlier Post report. That same season, Auburn also paid Chizik and three assistants a combined $4.1 million not to coach.

That year, Auburn also paid $400,000 to former baseball coach John Pawlowski (who was fired in May of 2013), and $242,000 to Tony Barbee (who was fired in May of 2014) as part of $2.4 million the school will pay its former men’s basketball coach in monthly installments until 2017.

Nevertheless, Auburn wasn’t the only SEC school to splurge on severance payments in 2014.

Kentucky paid more than $1.4 million in buyout money to rank seventh on the list of Power 5 schools, but at least its athletic department showed a profit of more than $1.2 million.

Florida’s athletic department — ninth on the list in terms of buyout money ($1.29 million) two years ago — turned a profit of $10.6 million despite its severance payments.

Most of Kentucky’s buyout money was what it still owed former head coach Joker Phillips, who was fired in 2012 with two years remaining on his contract and received a $2.55 million buyout. Phillips ,who after leaving the Commonwealth spent three seasons as Florida’s wide receivers coach/recruiting coordinator, finished his first year working with Johnny Manziel while coaching the Cleveland Browns’ wideouts.

According to Mark Schlabach of ESPN.com, Auburn has paid more than $12.5 million in buyouts to the last two head coaches it fired – Tommy Tuberville and Gene Chizik. After Auburn forced him to resign in 2008, Tuberville – currently Cincinnati’s head coach – was paid more than $5 million. Chizik, who these days is North Carolina’s defensive coordinator, was paid $7.5 million after Auburn forced him out in 2012.

Meanwhile, Auburn’s eyebrow-raising athletic expenses aren’t limited to paying fired coaches. In 2007, in a purchase that turned out to be obsolete just eight years later, Auburn installed the first high-definition video board in the SEC, a $2.9 million upgrade. Last year, the school installed another new video board, the largest in college sports, at a cost of $13.9 million.

With the firing of Will Muschamp, Florida’s buyout obligations have extended beyond 2014. Not only did Muschamp get to pocket the full $6 million remaining on his Florida deal when the Gators cut ties with him, he also made $1.6 million as Auburn’s defensive coordinator last year, making his combined $3.7 million salary more than what all but 12 head coaches in Power 5 conferences were paid in 2015, according to Schlabach.

Money for nothing

According to the Washington Post, these 10 Power 5 schools paid the most to former employees in 2014.