David Hookstead
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The Nebraska Cornhuskers have written an outrageous amount of buyout checks over the past 17 years.
Former head football coach Scott Frost was fired by the program Sunday, and he’s walking away from Lincoln with a cool $15 million over the next few years.
As bad as that number is to swallow, the situation is actually much worse once you go back to 2005.
The Cornhuskers have spent more than $50 million in buyout money since 2005, and the vast majority of it was directed to fire football coaches, according to the Omaha World-Herald.
Below are some of the biggest buyouts the Cornhuskers have had to pay:
- Scott Frost: $15 million
- Bo Pelini: $6.54 million
- Mike Riley: $6.2 million
- Bill Callahan: $3.13 million
It’s not just football coaches Nebraska has had to pay. Former athletic directors Steve Pederson, Shawn Eichorst and Bill Boos were paid more than $6.8 million in buyout money. Once you add in buyouts paid to basketball coaches and other staff, Nebraska easily passes the $50 million mark.
Given all the carnage surrounding the Cornhuskers, it’s easy to forget the team won a trio of national titles just a few decades ago.
Who could ever have imagined this is where Nebraska would end up after dominating in the 1990s? They went from winning national championships to spending more than $50 million to fire people.
You know you’ve made some terrible hiring decisions when you have to pay people millions of dollars to not work.
That’s why so many athletic directors have also been shown the door. You sign off on a fat contract for a coach that doesn’t work out, and you’ll be packing your bags right after him.
Hopefully, Nebraska gets it figured out because college football is simply better when the Cornhuskers are good. Unfortunately, it seems like it could be a long time before the program truly bounces back.
