Lincoln Riley is on the hot seat, how much will it cost USC in a buyout?
Fortunately for USC fans, the exact outrageous number to part ways with head coach Lincoln Riley if needed isn't known.
Riley enters the 2025 college football season on the hot seat after going 7-6 in the Trojans' first year in the Big Ten. USC, though, does not have to release its employees' contracts as a private university, so Riley's exact buyout if there's another poor season and the Trojans want to move on is not fully known, but there are still estimations.
It won't be cheap for the Trojans to get rid of Riley
According to USA Today's salary database, Riley's buyout for the 2024 season was a preposterous $88 million. Buyouts decrease every year of a contract, but based on other coach's contracts, don't expect Riley's buyout to be less than $75 million for the 2025 season.
Riley's $88 million buyout for the 2024 season was the second-most expensive in all of college football last year behind only Georgia's Kirby Smart at $92.6 million. For Georgia and Smart, though, it's more of a protection than liability. The Bulldogs won't be getting rid of Smart anytime soon, but that chunk of money does defer other schools from trying to pry Smart away from Georgia.
For Riley and USC, though, it's only protecting Riley. Even if the Trojans underperform again this upcoming season, the university still might not be able to afford to get rid of Riley and find someone new, especially with how costly college football rosters are now, too.
USC hired Riley away from Oklahoma in 2021, and to get Riley to L.A., the Trojans made him the highest-paid college football coach at the time with a reported long-term contract worth about $110 million, according to the L.A. Times.
Under Riley, the Trojans are 26–14 in three seasons. The best was Riley's first in 2022, when USC went 11-3 with quarterback Caleb Williams winning the Heisman Trophy after following Riley from OU. The Trojans then went 8-5 in 2023 and was 4-5 last year in conference play in their first Big Ten season.