This college football season has been filled with constant changes. Recently, the topic of conversation has been college football’s “buyout bonanza.” There has been a record-setting rate of college coaching buyouts this season, with the severance pay for FBS coaches at public universities is nearing $1 billion for the last 12 years[1]. Just this season, 12 coaches have been fired from major Power 5 programs, with the most notable being LSU’s Brian Kelly, with a $53 million buyout, and Penn State’s James Franklin, with an estimated $48.6 million buyout[2]. Schools are facing an estimated $185 million in buyout totals for the 2025-2026 season[3].
The record-setting rate of coaching buyouts has reignited one US Representative’s push to impose limits on how much universities can pay their coaches, including the value of buyouts. US Representative Michael Baumgartner (R-Wash.), recently introduced a federal bill called Correcting Opportunity and Accountability in Collegiate Hiring Act, also known as the COACH Act[4]. The act’s intent is to curb the buyout trend for coaches in college football by creating an antitrust safe harbor and amending the Higher Education Act of 1965 to allow for a cap on the total annual compensation of any athletic department employee at no more than ten times the institution’s annual in-state costs for a full-time undergraduate student[5]. Under the Higher Education Act of 1965, institutions receive substantial federal support and tax advantages, and Baumgartner says that the escalating compensation and buyouts for athletics personnel can divert resources from academic priorities and broad-based opportunities[6].
Through his proposed act, Baumgartner is trying to create a public policy baseline that is more reasonable in addressing coaching buyouts. The act would bring back coaching salaries to figures similar to pre-1990s salaries, but Baumgartner says there is nothing unreasonable about the figures he is proposing, given that colleges are a subsidized public good and not a part of the free market[7]. When comparing college coaching salaries to those of the President, top generals in the armed forces, or even high school coaches, Baumgartner says this pay decrease is quite reasonable[8]. Although it is not likely that this bill will advance, Baumgartner is open to negotiations and will consider the proposed act a success if Congress is able to create any kind of meaningful salary reductions for college coaches[9].
[1] David Rumsey, Coaching Buyouts to Surpass $1B in College Football Playoff Era, Front Office Sports (November 3, 2025).
[2] Nick Schultz, Federal bill introduced to cap college coaches’ salaries as buyouts rise, On3 (October 28, 2025).
[3] Rumsey, supra note 1.
[4] Id.
[5] Daniel Libit, Congressman Demands College Coach Pay Cap Amid Buyout Bonanza, Sportico (October 28, 2025).
[6] Schultz, supra note 2.
[7] Libit, supra note 5.
[8] Id.
[9] Id.
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