Brian Kelly buyout: Here’s how much it would cost LSU to fire its head coach
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LSU coach Brian Kelly could be back on the hot seat following the Tigers’ 31-24 loss to Vanderbilt on Saturday afternoon.
The Tigers are now 5-2 this season and have lost multiple SEC games in each of Kelly’s 4 seasons in charge. Frustrations over Kelly’s performance seem to be peaking in Baton Rouge, with a large section of the fan base calling for his job after the loss to Vanderbilt.
How much would it cost to fire Brian Kelly?
Kelly’s buyout at LSU would cost the school $53.3 million as the 8th-most expensive contract buyout for a college football head coach. Those numbers on Kelly’s buyout cost come from the USA Today coach’s salary database.
Per the term’s of Kelly’s contract, he’s owed 90% of his remaining salary if fired without cause. Kelly initially signed a 10-year contract with LSU that runs through the end of the 2031 season.
Kelly’s team fell to 5-2 overall and just 2-2 in the SEC after the Week 8 setback, and now LSU faces an uphill battle to stay in contention for a College Football Playoff spot. The now rocky road to that Playoff spot doesn’t get any easier next week, when LSU hosts No. 4 Texas A&M. Two weeks later comes a trip to No. 6 Alabama, and the Tigers face No. 14 Oklahoma on the road in their regular-season finale.
Assuming Kelly makes it that far with his job still intact, LSU faces that expensive buyout of Kelly if it hopes to free itself of a head coach many Tigers fans want gone right now.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
