5 college football head coaches who would already be fired if not for massive buyouts

One of the biggest things fans of college football tend to forget about this time of the year is how truly expensive it is to fire some head coaches. While it can be done on a whim in professional sports, we have to remember that most college football programs of note are at public universities. Thus, these head coaches and their staffs are state employees, so everything has to be accounted for.

In short, you and what army may want to fire your bad coach into the sunset yesterday, but who is going to front the bill? It is all about convincing some big-pocketed booster who went to that school to bite the bullet so none of us have to. These ludicrous contracts many of these head coaches sign are fully guaranteed. This means that they have to be bought out in order to be kicked to the curb.

So what I am going to do today is take a look at some of the biggest buyouts in college football today and pick five who would have probably already been fired by now if not for their massive buyouts. Again, it can be challenging to find the contract details for private schools and a select few other institutions. All I know is those salaries are competitive because they all have similar representation.

Let's start with one of the biggest underperformers who has not exactly taken the SEC by storm.

5. Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze

Admittedly, it is not an insurmountable buyout, but it does make you pause for a second. Hugh Freeze is only in year two at Auburn. Prior to returning to the SEC, the disgraced former Ole Miss head coach had won everywhere else he has been, from Arkansas State, to Ole Miss, to Liberty. Unfortunately, he might coach the sorriest team in the SEC right now. Even lowly Mississippi State plays much harder.

To move on from Freeze, it would cost Auburn $20,312,500. This is only the 29th-highest buyout in major college football among public universities. Surely, Tim Cook of Apple or the never-ending supply of YellaWood money could make him disappear. However, moving on from Freeze less than two years after moving on from Bryan Harsin after less than two years would make this job so toxic.

Even if Freeze is taking about as well in Auburn as a polar bear in the Sahara Desert, Auburn cannot optically move on from him after this season. The buyout will go down after Dec. 1, which is the cutoff date for every buyout listed in this exercise. Should Freeze fail again in year three down on The Plains, it would be a far less bitter pill to swallow. Auburn needs to ride this out for one more year minimum.

Freeze needs to get Auburn back to a bowl game in 2025 to have any realistic shot of keeping his job.

Hugh Freeze's Auburn buyout: $20,312,500

4. Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier

By far and away, Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier is the most likely candidate of the five in question here to be fired by the end of the season. Like Hugh Freeze at Auburn, Napier's buyout is not impossible to pay, but does make you think a bit. Napier's buyout at Florida will be $26,704,167 on Dec. 1. To me, it all comes down to how hard Florida plays up until the Ain't No Sunshine Showdown.

Florida is 4-3 heading into The Cocktail Party with hated rival Georgia. The Gators are playing better under Napier, but Jacksonville has routinely been a place of great embarrassment for Napier. Win or lose in Duval, Florida needs to find a way to win one of these three games before Florida State at the end of the season: Texas, LSU or Ole Miss. Like Georgia, they are all three playoff hopefuls in the SEC.

Personally, I would not fire Napier after this season unless the Gators lose out to finish at 4-8. Their three losses up to this point are to other College Football Playoff contenders in Miami, Texas A&M and Tennessee, who the Gators took to overtime in Knoxville. 6-6 should keep Napier safe, but I would be hesitant to fire him after the Florida State game. The Gators had to navigate such a brutal season.

Of course, Gator Nation doesn't feel this way. Scott Stricklin may be left with no choice in the matter.

Billy Napier's Florida buyout: $26,704,167

3. Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Stoops

This is a very hard one to get my head around. Mark Stoops is the longest-tenured head coach in the SEC dating back to 2013, now that Nick Saban has hung up the headset for the sweet broadcasting life. However, Kentucky is 3-5 and athletic director Mitch Barnhart's biggest distraction now works for Arkansas in men's basketball coach John Calipari. UK has Mark Pope and just went to the CWS, too.

So what I am getting at: Is going 9-3 every three years still good enough for Kentucky? I would argue it is because I remember how much of a joke the Wildcats were under Stoops' predecessor of Joker Phillips. Who is laughing now? Honestly, anyone who plays the Kentucky offense. I get that Bush Hamdan had to replace the popular Liam Coen who is now in Tampa Bay, but Kentucky cannot throw.

Given that Stoops has a staggering buyout of $44,437,500, Kentucky may have to lose out for this to be a realistic possibility. I will say that Kentucky having to vacate wins from one of its best seasons in recent years may soften the blow. You and I may remember those wins, but they have unfortunately been stricken from the record. It really comes down to how bad Kentucky looks in its final four games.

For nearly $45 million, Kentucky would have bought out Calipari, but would it do the same for Stoops?

Mark Stoops' Kentucky buyout: $44,437,500

2. Oklahoma Sooners head coach Brent Venables

With a just slightly hire buyout than Mark Stoops at Kentucky, we need to seriously ask ourselves if Brent Venables is going to get a fourth year at Oklahoma after this one. OU is 4-4 overall, but is playing some truly pitiful football of late. The Sooners did not look dominant in the non-conference, and their only SEC win to date was over an equally pitiful Auburn team. Venables is feeling the heat.

Unfortunately, he just signed a so beyond-moronic mega-contract extension this past offseason. For what? To help him navigate the early part of SEC play? Well, I think we need to point the finger back at longtime athletic director Joe Castiglione for putting his head coach and the football team in a less-than-advantageous situation. It will cost $44,808,333 to buy out Venables out of this current deal.

While the amount it would cost to fire either Hugh Freeze at Auburn or Billy Napier at Florida may have some boosters reticent to pull the trigger, you would need to be certain that Venables' possible successor in Norman would be better than him. I might think that former OU assistant in South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer may be the cure to what ails them, but that is a massive buyout!

The only way Venables gets to coach out this contract is if Jackson Arnold balls out next season.

Brent Venables' Oklahoma buyout: $44,808,333

1. Florida State Seminoles head coach Mike Norvell

Unlike Brent Venables at Oklahoma, Mike Norvell did earn his contract extension with Florida State. Unfortunately, if you live by the portal, you will die by the portal, as this year's Seminoles team has bitten him in the behind so hard. Florida State is 1-7 on the year, now guaranteed to be the seventh team in the last 15 years to finish the previous season at No. 6 or better to then have a losing record.

I don't know if firing Norvell would be the right call this offseason, no matter what Florida State's putrid record ends up being. Even if the Noles went 1-11 (1-7) with their lone win on the year being at home to Cal, do you have $63,778,333 in available cash to spend? In fact, Florida State is cash-strapped because of the ACC's awful TV deal with ESPN. No wonder the Seminoles want out so badly.

Entering this season, only Alabama's Kalen DeBoer and Georgia's Kirby Smart have larger buyouts than Norvell. The sums are massive, but are totally in line with what all three have done up to this point. The only problem is Alabama and Georgia are still very much in playoff consideration, whereas Florida State's season will be done in a month, even though I think their season is already so cooked.

Financial ruin will take place if Florida State were to move on from Norvell after his season from hell.

Mike Norvell's Florida State buyout: $63,778,333