Nebraska Leads Power Five in Coach Severance Payouts

The University of Nebraska was recognized by a new study as having spent more on firing coaches than any other university in the Power Five.

Since 2005, Nebraska has fired head football coaches Bill Callahan, Bo Pelini and Mike Riley, and men’s basketball coaches Doc Sadler and Tim Miles. The total cost to the university comes in at just under $28 million in severance pay, according to the NCAA financial reports obtained in a public records request by AthleticDirectorU, which covered 52 public Power Five universities. 

Nebraska ranked first in severance spending for coaches, ahead of Auburn, Florida, Kansas and UCLA.

In 2018 alone, Nebraska paid $11.9 million in severance, according to the Scottsbluff Star-Herald.

Overall, ADU’s report found that the 52 universities covered in the report spent a combined total of $491,770,668 in the 648 individual school years examined on football and men’s basketball severance payments. The schools paid out an average of $758,905 per school, per year.

Those number are skewed slightly by the last two years, as severance payments spiked. The average Power Five severance payments to football and men’s basketball coaches combined was roughly three times the average in 2018.

ADU’s extensive full report can be viewed here.