FBS Schools Paid Over $533.6M in Dead Money to CBB, CFB Coaches Over 11-Year Span

FBS schools paid over $533.6 million in dead money to football, men's basketball and women's basketball head coaches who were fired without cause before the end of their contracts from Jan. 1, 2010 to Jan. 31, 2021.

ESPN's Paula Lavigne and Mark Schlabach reported the findings Friday. 

Ten schools paid out $15.5 million or more during the 11-year span, with Auburn leading the pack at $31.2 million. The school paid out more than $18 million to ex-football coaches Gene Chizik and Gus Malzahn alone.

Georgia Southern, LSU, TCU, Texas Tech, Akron, UConn and USC have all parted ways with their football coaches since Feb. 1, meaning those dead-money totals are not included in the findings.

LSU head football coach Ed Orgeron, who will step down after this season, will be owed $16.9 million.

In addition, the figure only includes public universities. Of note, 22 of the 130 FBS programs are private institutions. And only 86 schools provided records: four public schools had "no responsive records," per ESPN, and 18 others submitted either no records or incomplete information.

Football coaches have received the most dead money by far, amassing $402.3 million.

Men's hoops coaches had $116.3 million in dead money, and women's basketball coaches had $15.1 million.

The SEC had the most dead money out of any conference with $151 million. The Pac-12 ($114.1 million) and Big Ten ($106.8 million) rounded out the top three.