2025 Badger Football Thread

Before Franklin’s firing, there had only been two other occasions when a school paid in excess of $20 million for a coach to go away. Those would be Florida State University’s Jimbo Fisher in 2023 (an estimated $76 million buyout) and Auburn University’s Gus Malzahn in 2020 (an estimated $21.45 million buyout).

Buyouts are becoming more common among college football coaches. Roughly $93 million in buyouts have already been given out in 2025 — just six games into the season. So where does Franklin’s payout fit in?

These are the most expensive buyouts in college football so far this year, according to FrontOfficeSports:

Penn State, James Franklin: $49.7 million
Oklahoma State, Mike Gundy: $15 million
Arkansas, Sam Pittman: $9.8 million
UCLA, DeShaun Foster: $6.43 million
Virginia Tech, Brent Pry: $6 million
Oregon State, Trent Bray: $4 million
UAB, Trent Dilfer: $2.4 million
Click to expand...
 
Haven't seen it mentioned but in the middle of the Madison football madness, they got a commitment from a high 3-star edge rusher from Medina, TN. Yahya Gaad is 6'-5" and 260# and is listed as an "Edge" though at that size in high school it seems like he'll gradually transition into a 3-4 type DE. Now the question is how long he'll stay committed.
 
Not a Badger story per se, but may affect what happens at UW in the offseason. The spring portal window is gone. All portal transfers will now happen in early January. Makes it even more important to get your new football coach hired and working by early December.

PS - players still have the Xavier Lucas option to unenroll from school and enroll at a new school, but that would likely be more of a complicated "summer" transfer strategy since there is probably no "legal" way to enroll at a new school in the spring in the middle of a semester.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top