They say you’ve gotta spend money to make money. When it comes to football, SEC schools certainly aren’t shy about doing that.
Whether it’s NIL, stadium/facility upgrades, or anything else, running and maintaining a high-level football program takes some serious coin. If you’re not willing to pony up the cash for a head coach to make it all worthwhile, someone else will. Unfortunately, swinging and missing on that head coach can also have some dire consequences (aka, a massive buyout).
The annual USA Today database of coach salaries was released on Wednesday. In addition to annual paydays, USA Today included each coach’s buyout figure. And let me tell you: even the craziest salaries pale in comparison to some of those totals. For example, Kirby Smart, the highest-paid head coach in the country ($13.3 million salary), has a $105 million buyout. That amount — the largest buyout among college head coaches, unsurprisingly — is roughly 8 times his annual salary.
Georgia fans, thankfully, don’t need to worry about that figure in the slightest bit, because Smart isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Other schools, though, aren’t so lucky. Here’s every SEC coach’s buyout* (as of 12/1/2025), with its national ranking — No. 1 is highest — noted alongside it:
- Kirby Smart (Georgia) – $105,107,583 (No. 1)
- Kalen DeBoer (Alabama) – $60,843,750 (3)
- Steve Sarkisian (Texas) – $60,307,500 (4)
- Brian Kelly (LSU) – $53,293,333 (9)
- Mark Stoops (Kentucky) – $37,687,500 (13)
- Josh Heupel (Tennessee) – $37,500,000 (14)
- Lane Kiffin (Ole Miss) – $36,600,000 (15)
- Brent Venables (Oklahoma) – $36,158,333 (16)
- Eli Drinkwitz (Missouri) – $28,875,685 (23)
- Shane Beamer (South Carolina) – $27,903,958 (24)
- Mike Elko (Texas A&M) – $21,875,000 (32)
- Billy Napier (Florida) – $20,428,333 (34)
- Hugh Freeze (Auburn) – $15,437,500 (35)
- Jeff Lebby (Mississippi State) – $11,006,250 (46)
- Clark Lea (Vanderbilt) – Not Listed
*Sam Pittman’s reported buyout from Arkansas was $9.8 million. It was reportedly negotiated down to $8.3 million in the days after his firing.
