LSU Football in Turmoil: Could Brian Kelly’s Buyout Trigger an Unexpected Coaching Shakeup?

So, here we are, staring down the barrel of what might be the final chapter in LSU’s Brian Kelly saga — a tale that’s more thriller than a fairy tale. After that jaw-dropping loss to Vanderbilt, snapping a 35-year streak, the temperature of Tigers’ fans has reached boiling point. Yet, before anyone gets out the pitchforks, there’s that little matter of the buyout—oh, that staggering $52 million-plus golden handshake! Ever wonder what it costs to sideline a coach on a $95 million contract? It’s not just dollars—it’s a punch to the pride and the budget jacket. Kelly’s tenure at LSU, with its promising record but conspicuous lack of championships, now teeters on a razor’s edge, making us ask: Is splurging on his exit a bargain or an epic blunder? And how does a university balance dreams of glory against the cold hard math of million-dollar payouts? Let’s unpack this high-stakes coaching conundrum with all the drama it deserves. LEARN MORE.

LSU football’s Brian Kelly experiment may be coming to an end sooner rather than later.

After Saturday’s loss to Vanderbilt, which was the first time in 35 years that the Commodores had beaten the Tigers, it’s fair to say that there is a growing section of the LSU fan base that are ready for Kelly to be fired. But how much would that cost the university, which paid Les Miles a few million and Ed Orgeron $17 million after firing the national championship-winning coaches in 2016 and 2021, respectively?

Well, it’d be a lot more than that to oust Kelly, who signed a 10-year, $95 million contract with LSU back in November 2021. He has earned more than $30 million of that deal so far, even though some fans would probably argue that he hasn’t really earned any of it.

In any event, if Kelly is fired following this season, he will be owed 90% of the $58.2 million left on his deal, which comes out to a $52.38 million buyout, eclipsing James Franklin’s at Penn State as the second-largest in college football history. Only Texas A&M’s decision to pay more than $76 million to fire Jimbo Fisher was costlier.

Per the buyout clause in his contract, Kelly would receive “equal monthly installments” over the rest of the contract’s term. That would be about $727,500 per month (about $8.73 million per year) paid to Kelly by LSU through the 2031 calendar year. The amount would be increased if he is fired before the end of the season, as he is making $9.4 million this year.

There are other factors as to how much he would actually be paid; particularly, like most coaches, Kelly would have a “duty to mitigate,” meaning he would have to continue to look for work as a football coach, adminstrator, or media member. If he were to get another “qualifying” job afterward, the amount the next employer pays him offsets the amount LSU has to pay him.

LSU, of course, would like to not have to do that at all. Preferably, the Tigers would be competing for championships with Kelly at the helm. Unfortunately, it is looking more and more likely that Kelly will leave Baton Rouge as the only LSU head coach in the 21st century not to have won a conference or national title.

In his fourth year as LSU head coach, Kelly has a 34-13 overall record and 17-7 SEC record, the latter of which is the best mark of any LSU head coach in terms of win percentage since Bill Arnsparger in the mid-1980s. Unfortunately, that may do little to save Kelly if he can’t pull off an upset next week.

After overseeing the end of LSU’s 10-game win streak against Vanderbilt, the Tigers are 5-2 and on the brink of dropping out of the AP Top 25 and College Football Playoff contention. The only way they can likely stave that off is a win against No. 3 Texas A&M on Saturday and/or, following a bye week, currently fourth-ranked Alabama in Tuscaloosa. After home games vs. Arkansas and Western Kentucky, LSU finishes the regular season in Norman vs. Oklahoma.

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