From Big Red Today
LINCOLN — No athletic department spent more money on firing football and men’s basketball coaches in the past 15 years than Nebraska, a new study shows.
Since 2005, Nebraska has fired football coaches Bill Callahan, Bo Pelini and Mike Riley, and men’s basketball coaches Doc Sadler and Tim Miles. That cost NU a total of $27,914,154 in severance pay, according to NCAA financial reports obtained in a public records request by
AthleticDirectorU. That ranks most among 52 power conference schools, just ahead of Auburn, Florida, Kansas and UCLA.
In 2018 alone, Nebraska paid $11.9 million in severance payments. They were one of five schools to top $10 million in payments that year, including Arizona State, UCLA, Florida and Tennessee.
The bill mounted after more than a decade of controversial decisions by athletic directors and chancellors, dating back to the firing of Frank Solich in 2003. His replacement, Callahan, was fired in 2007, one year after the Huskers won the Big 12 North and finished with a 9-5 record. A 5-7 disaster led to Callahan’s outing, and $3.13 million buyout. New Athletic Director Tom Osborne replaced outed Athletic Director Steve Pederson and hired Pelini. After seven seasons and a 67-27 record, Pelini was fired by new Athletic Director Shawn Eichorst. Pelini’s buyout was $6.54 million and paid in monthly installments of $128,009. The final payment to Pelini went out in February of 2019.
Eichorst hired Mike Riley, who was fired three years later after a 19-19 record.
Eichorst was fired first, after Nebraska’s loss to Northern Illinois in September of 2017. New Athletic Director Bill Moos
fired Riley in December. Nebraska paid Riley a lump sum of $6.2 million.
In payments to football coaches the past 15 years, Nebraska is second only to Florida, paying a total of $24,340,701 to Callahan, Pelini and Riley. All three of those coaches were fired within one year of receiving a contract extension.
Doc Sadler was hired to run Nebraska basketball in 2006 and was then fired in March of 2012 after signing a contract extension the year prior. He was paid $3.4 million in monthly checks from March of 2012 to June of 2016. His replacement, Tim Miles, was fired last March after seven seasons. His buyout was $2.52 million, which is currently being paid out in $105,000 installments until March of 2021.
The average severance pay per fired Nebraska coach was $1.86 million, the study showed, which was fifth among the 52 schools. Tennessee's severance pay average was $2.8 million per coach, with the firings of football coaches Derek Dooley and Butch Jones and basketball coach Bruce Pearl.
In total, the study found, schools paid more than $491,000,000 in severance pay since 2005.
Nebraska currently has the highest-paid football coach in school history, Scott Frost, and the highest-paid basketball coach in school history, Fred Hoiberg. Frost is 9-15 in two seasons at Nebraska, the fewest amount of wins in two years in more than 50 years. Moos gave Frost an extension in the middle of last season. His $5 million a year salary ranks 14th in college football and fifth in the Big Ten. Hoiberg’s first season was the worst in 60 years with a 7-25 record. His seven-year, $25 million deal placed him as the 11th-highest paid coach in college basketball.
Frost’s buyout would cost Nebraska roughly $30 million. Hoiberg’s buyout would be $22 million.
