Fisher tops $146M owed to fired Power 5 coaches
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Paula Lavigne, ESPN Staff Writer
Texas A&M‘s record $76 million contract buyout for fired football coach Jimbo Fisher accounts for more than half of the approximately $146 million Power 5 schools owe to fired head football coaches since the start of the 2022 season, according to publicly available data.
Fisher’s buyout is nearly triple the highest known coaching contract buyout at a public school. The previous record was set by Auburn‘s 2020 buyout of football coach Gus Malzahn, which cost $21.7 million.
According to an ESPN analysis of athletic department financial records and contracts, Power 5 and Group of 5 programs spent more than $533 million in dead money — owed to coaches who were fired without cause with time left on their contracts — in the 11-year period from Jan. 1, 2010, to Jan. 31, 2021. That included payments to football coaches and men’s and women’s basketball coaches and accounted for head and assistant coaches.
Also included in the $146 million owed since the beginning of the 2022 season:
• $15.5 million for Bryan Harsin, fired from Auburn in October 2022.
• $15 million for Scott Frost, fired from Nebraska in September 2022.
• $11.4 million for Geoff Collins, fired from Georgia Tech in September 2022.
• $11 million for Paul Chryst, fired from Wisconsin in October 2022.
• $8.7 million for Karl Dorrell, fired from Colorado in October 2022.
• $4.4 million for Herm Edwards, fired from Arizona State in September 2022.
• $4 million for Zach Arnett, fired from Mississippi State on Monday.
Buyouts can change depending on certain circumstances, including whether a coach lands a new job. According to the terms of Fisher’s contract, Texas A&M will owe Fisher $19.2 million within 60 days and then pay him $7.2 million annually through 2031. There is no offset or mitigation on those payments, and the annual payments start 120 days after termination.
Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork said in a news conference Sunday that the school “has to learn a lesson” from Fisher’s contract and that the finances involved in his firing are “monumental.”
“We will use unrestricted contributions within the 12th Man Foundation for the first one-time payment and the athletic department will fund the annual payments for the remaining portion by growing our revenues and adjusting our annual operating budget accordingly,” he said. “Although this is a major, major financial decision that comes with many consequences, we have a plan and we will not let this impact the performance or the culture of our entire athletics program.”
Texas A&M’s athletic department generated about $193 million in revenue in 2022, ranking seventh among public Power 5 colleges, according to the Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database. Fisher’s buyout is just $6 million less than the Kansas State athletic department’s total expenses in 2022, which were about $82 million.
The trend, dating to last fall, of firings occurring from midseason to before conference championships has been accelerating. Previously, most coaching changes took place in early December. The transfer portal opens Dec. 4, and the early signing period begins Dec. 20.
B. David Ridpath, Ohio University sports business professor and a member of The Drake Group, an organization that lobbies Congress on issues in college athletics, said that despite claims of donors footing the bill for buyouts, “regardless of where the money comes from, all money is state money at a public institution.” While he said he understands some severance is needed for coaches fired for performance reasons, it doesn’t make sense to pay out their entire contracts for essentially a failure to perform.
Ridpath said the ability of schools to pay these buyouts shows that they can come up with the money to pay athletes, which is a highly debated issue among university leaders, the NCAA, conferences, legislators and athlete advocacy groups.
“I would like to think [the Fisher buyout] would be so outrageous that the Texas public policy groups or state legislators or federal delegation says, ‘Hold on a second. Our public institutions should not be doing this,'” Ridpath said. “What I fear is, this is only going to get larger. The only thing that will stem this tide is if the labor is paid,” and more money goes to the athletes instead of the coaches.
The $146 million calculation does not include contract money potentially owed to former Michigan State coach Mel Tucker, who was fired for cause in September amid a sexual misconduct investigation, or to former Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald, who was fired following an investigation into hazing allegations. Fitzgerald is suing Northwestern for wrongful termination, and Tucker has said he is preparing to file a similar lawsuit against Michigan State.
Mitch Marner was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights — with an eight-year extension in place, sources told ESPN on Monday. Forward Nicolas Roy will go to the Toronto Maple Leafs in return.
Marner’s new deal has a $12 million average annual value, according to sources. Marner, 28, was the biggest name entering Tuesday’s NHL free agency, and multiple teams were hoping to make pitches. Marner was the NHL’s fifth-leading scorer last season with 102 points — 36 more than the next-closest free agent. The winger was drafted by his hometown Maple Leafs with the No. 4 pick in 2015.
The Maple Leafs knew that Marner was looking to test free agency at the end of the season. Over the past few days, Toronto worked with Vegas, which was Marner’s preferred destination, on a trade. The Maple Leafs held Marner’s rights until just before midnight Tuesday.
Had Marner become an unrestricted free agent, he couldn’t have signed a deal for more than seven years.
Marner finished a six-year deal that paid him $10.9 million annually. Marner, who played for Team Canada at Four Nations and likely will make their Olympic team, has 221 goals and 741 points in nine NHL seasons.
Toronto general manager Brad Treliving has stayed busy this week, re-signing John Tavares and Matthew Knies while trading for Utah forward Matias Maccelli earlier Monday.
Roy, 28, is a center who is entering Year 4 of a five-year deal that pays him $3 million annually.
Ahead of the Marner trade, the Golden Knights created cap space by sending defenseman Nicolas Hague to the Nashville Predators on Monday.
The deal makes Marner the highest-paid player on Vegas, however, center Jack Eichel ($10 million AAV) is entering the final year of his contract and is eligible to sign an extension this summer. The Golden Knights might not be done this offseason. According to sources, defenseman Alex Pietrangelo is expected to go on long-term injured reserve, which could create more flexibility.
Sign-and-trades ahead of free agency are becoming a trend for NHL teams that know they will not sign their coveted player; last season, the Carolina Hurricanes dealt Jake Guentzel‘s rights to the Tampa Bay Lightning before he signed a seven-year deal.
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Ryan S. Clark
Hours after re-signing Aaron Ekblad, the Florida Panthers kept another integral piece of their Stanley Cup team by re-signing Brad Marchand to a six-year contract extension, sources told ESPN’s Emily Kaplan.
Marchand’s deal has an average annual value of $5.25 million, sources told Kaplan.
Coming to terms with Ekblad on an eight-year extension worth $6.1 million annually left the Panthers with what PuckPedia projected to be $4.9 million in salary cap space.
There was the possibility that Marchand, 37, could have left the Panthers for a more lucrative offer elsewhere considering there were teams that had more than enough cap space to sign him.
Instead? Marchand, who arrived ahead of the NHL trade deadline from the Boston Bruins, appears as if he will remain in South Florida for the rest of his career.
Acquiring defenseman Seth Jones from the Chicago Blackhawks and then adding Marchand were two decisions made by Panthers general manager Bill Zito with the intent of seeing the Panthers win a second consecutive Stanley Cup as part of a run that now has included three straight Cup Final appearances.
Marchand, who was a pending UFA entering the final day before free agency begins Tuesday, used the 2025 postseason to further cement why the Panthers and other teams throughout the NHL would still seek his services. He scored 10 goals and finished with 20 points in 23 playoff games.
For all the contributions he made, his greatest came during the Cup Final series against the Edmonton Oilers.
Marchand, who previously won a Cup with the Bruins back in 2011, opened the series with a goal in the first three games. That includes the two goals he scored in the Panthers’ 5-4 double-overtime win to tie the series with his second being the game-winning salvo.
He scored two more goals in a 5-2 win in Game 5 that allowed the Panthers to take a 3-1 series lead before returning to Sunrise, Florida, where they closed out the series with an emphatic 5-1 win.
Capturing a consecutive title created questions about whether the Panthers can win a third in a row. But there was the understanding that it might be difficult given there was only so much salary cap space to re-sign Conn Smythe winner Sam Bennett, Ekblad and Marchand.
Knowing there was a chance they could lose one, or more, of them, Zito laid the foundation to retain the trio. He began by signing Bennett to an eight-year contract worth $8 million annually on June 27 before using Monday to sign Ekblad and Marchand.
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Ryan S. Clark
Ivan Provorov decided to forgo free agency, with the veteran defenseman finalizing a seven-year extension Monday worth $8.5 million annually to remain with the Columbus Blue Jackets, sources told ESPN, confirming earlier reports.
With free agency slated to start Tuesday, the 28-year-old was one of the most notable defenseman who had a chance to hit the open market.
Provorov’s decision to stay with the Blue Jackets comes shortly after it was reported that Aaron Ekblad also avoided free agency by agreeing to an eight-year extension to remain with the Florida Panthers. That now leaves players such as Vladislav Gavrikov, Ryan Lindgren, and Dmitry Orlov among the more prominent pending UFAs who could be available should they fail to strike a deal with their current teams.
Retaining Provorov comes months after a season that witnessed the Blue Jackets shed the title of being a rebuilding franchise to one that could challenge for the playoffs in 2025-26.
Four consecutive seasons without the playoffs created the idea that the 2024-25 campaign could be another challenging one. But a six-game winning streak in January saw Columbus post a 22-17-6 record to create the belief that a turnaround could be in order.
The Jackets closed the season with another six-game winning streak but fell short of the final Eastern Conference wild-card playoff spot, which went to the Montreal Canadiens by two points.
Provorov would finish with seven goals and 33 points in 82 games while his 23 minutes, 21 seconds in average ice time was second behind Norris Trophy finalist Zach Werenski.
Re-signing Provorov comes in an offseason that saw the Blue Jackets also strengthen their bottom-six forward corps by adding Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood in a trade with the Colorado Avalanche.
PuckPedia projects that the Blue Jackets now have $20.957 million in cap space ahead of free agency.
TSN was first to report news of Provorov’s decision.
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