Everything means more for the Oklahoma Sooners since their move to the SEC last year, including their head coach's buyout.
Brent Venables enters the 2025 college football season on the hot seat after two losing seasons in the last three years leading the Sooners, including a 6-7 record last year in OU's first campaign in the SEC. If Venables fails to turn things around despite so many changes and OU decides to move on, it would cost the university $34.9 million to fire him after the season ended, according multiple outlets that obtained Venables' newest contract.
It's not cheap for Sooners to move on from Venables
Venables' buyout escalated after OU signed him to a 6-year extension in June 2024 before the Sooners officially joined the SEC. Venables' entire contract is also fully guaranteed, so the Sooners must really see the need to get rid of him to pull the trigger.
Many OU fans even clamored for Venables' job last season. That would had cost the school $44.8 million, so OU at least saved about $10 million by keeping Venables another year.
The buyout continues to drop every year of the contract until it ends in 2029. However, if Venables does enough to keep his job that long, then he'll surely earn another extension before it even gets close to expiring.
Here's the buyout amount by year:
2025: $34.9 million
2026: $26.2 million
2027: $17.4 million
2028: $8.5 million
2029: $0
However, the Sooners could get out of paying Venables the full amount if he finds a new job after OU fires him. How much depends on what he's guaranteed from his new university.
The Sooners hired Venables before the 2022 season to replace Lincoln Riley, who left for USC. It was Venables' second stop in Norman after serving as the Sooners' defensive coordinator from 1999 until 2011. He was then Clemson's defensive coordinator in 2018-21 until OU gave him his first head coaching job.
Going back to his roots as a three-time national champion defensive coordinator, Venables will call the plays for OU's defense this season with his job on the line. He also brought in Ben Arbuckle from Washington State to be the Sooners' new offensive coordinator after one of the worst offensive performances in OU history in 2024.