The Omaha World Herald reports that a new study shows that no athletic department spent more money on firing football and men’s basketball coaches in the past 15 years than Nebraska.
Since 2005, Nebraska has fired football coaches Bill Callahan, Bo Pelini and Mike Riley and men’s basketball coaches Doc Sadler and Tim Miles. That cost NU a total of $27,914,154 in severance pay, according to NCAA financial reports obtained in a public records request by Athletic Director U. That ranks most among 52 power conference schools, just ahead of Auburn, Florida, Kansas and UCLA.
In 2018 alone, Nebraska paid $11.9 million in severance payments. It was one of five schools to top $10 million in payments that year, with the others being Arizona State, UCLA, Florida and Tennessee.
In payments to football coaches the past 15 years, Nebraska is second only to Florida, paying a total of $24,340,701 to Callahan, Pelini and Riley. All three of those coaches were fired within one year of receiving a contract extension.
Nebraska’s average severance pay per year was $1.86 million, the study showed, which was fifth among the 52 schools. Tennessee’s severance pay average was $2.8 million per year, with the firings of football coaches Derek Dooley and Butch Jones and basketball coach Bruce Pearl.
