What is Brent Venables’ buyout at Oklahoma? SEC is eating the Sooners alive

I don't know if it is the worst contract in the Power Four, but Joe Castiglione, what were you thinking? I understand that he has been the athletic director at Oklahoma for more than a fifth of the time that Oklahoma has been a state, but paying Venables a mega-extension prematurely for no reason is blowing up in the Sooners' face catastrophically. He is not the one to lead them into the SEC at all!

Oklahoma may be 4-2 on the season, but the Sooners have struggled mightily in two of their first three games in SEC play. While they did beat Auburn, everybody beats Auburn this year. Though they did fight back vs. Tennessee, the Sooners were dead on arrival vs. Texas at Red River. Now they are getting bullied by the best team in the country who may not go bowling this season in South Carolina.

Even though I thought Oklahoma would fit in quite nicely in terms of a cultural perspective upon joining the SEC, OU gave up being the preeminent power in the old Big 12 for this?! At best, Oklahoma can be like an Auburn, a Florida, or an LSU, teams that can win national titles, but they are almost always going to be one-offs because they lack the infrastructure to be dynastic like other programs.

And if you want to know how much it will cost to move on from Venables this year, it is $48,808,333!

Oklahoma is behind the eight ball regarding Brent Venables' huge buyout

Venables is making $8.152 million for the 2024 college football season. That has him with the 15th highest mark in all of college football. Since the University of Oklahoma is a public school, we know all the details of Venables' contract. His $48,808,333 buyout is 10th most in college football. To make matters worse, all but Mike Norvell ahead of him are leading teams still vying for playoff inclusion.

Every other coach with a higher buyout than him has already achieved more leading a college football team. Kirby Smart and Dabo Swinney have won national titles. Kalen DeBoer, Brian Kelly and Steve Sarkisian have led teams to the Playoff. Mike Norvell, James Franklin and Matt Rhule have all won conference championships before. Dan Lanning leads the No. 2 team in the nation over at Oregon.

Far more accomplished Power Four head coaches have smaller buyouts than Venables. Those include Mark Stoops, Luke Fickell, Josh Heupel, Ryan Day, Lane Kiffin and Chris Klieman. This may only be Venables' third year on the job, but you have to wonder if he is going to get more than four at the rate this thing is going. He is simply too expensive to fire right now, as that buyout is so massive!

I don't know who Oklahoma needs to hire instead, but Venables is not up to the program's standard.