Jimbo Fisher to reportedly receive record $77 million buyout after being relieved of head football coach duties
By Wayne Sterling, CNN
(CNN) — The firing of Jimbo Fisher will reportedly cost Texas A&M University about $77 million to buy out his contract, according to multiple reports and the salary tracking website Spotrac, after the school relieved him of his duties as head football coach on Sunday.
It would be the biggest buyout in college football history.
CNN has reached out to Texas A&M about the buyout details.
When Fisher was first named head football coach at Texas A&M in 2017, the university said he had agreed to a 10-year contract worth $75 million, adding no “state-appropriated funds” would be used toward his salary.
The finances behind the decision to fire the coach are “monumental,” Ross Bjork, Texas A&M director of athletics, said during a Sunday evening news conference.
In 2021, Texas A&M extended Fisher’s contract for an additional four years through the 2031 season, giving him an annual salary of more than $9 million.
“As the contract states, there is a buyout provision in coach Fisher’s contract and those details will be worked out,” Bjork said.
Texas A&M Athletics and an independent fundraising organization for the department will be “the sole sources of the necessary funds covering these transition costs.”
“We will use unrestricted contributions within the 12th Man Foundation for the first one-time payments and the athletic department will fund the annual payments for the remaining portion by growing our revenues and adjusting our annual operating budget accordingly,” Bjork said.
“This will only involve athletics and 12th Man Foundation funds.”
This season, the Aggies are 6-4 overall and 4-3 in the Southeastern Conference, with two games remaining in the 2023 season, at home against Abilene Christian Wildcats on Saturday and on the road against the LSU Tigers on November 25.
In explaining his decision, the athletic director said while the timing is “not ideal,” he felt the team needed a shift in direction.
“Our program is stuck in neutral, we should be relevant on the national scene, something is not clicking, something is not working and therefore, something had to give in order for Aggie football to reach our full potential,” Bjork said during the news conference.
Fisher was 45-25 in six seasons at Texas A&M. He was hired in December 2017 after spending eight seasons as head coach at Florida State University, where he led the Seminoles to a national championship.
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