These college basketball coaches are in trouble and will be expensive to fire

There has always been immense pressure to win in college basketball, especially at the blue blood programs, but as revenue-sharing gets introduced and the athletic departments begin to pay athletes directly, that pressure will only ramp up. Now, schools won’t just be diverting resources to the head coach, but to the players who, in many cases, that coach hand-selected. 

This past offseason’s coaching carousel exemplified that urgency, with major movement at programs with national championships in their trophy cases and annual title aspirations. Indiana had enough with Mike Woodson, replacing him with Darian DeVries from West Virginia, and Villanova took its second swing at replacing Jay Wright, moving on from Kyle Neptune in favor of Kevin Willard from Maryland. Even football schools like Texas and Miami made major moves. 

College sports have never had patience, and the leash has gotten even shorter all across the country. If a head coach can’t win, many programs are even willing to pay a steep price to move on, and these five coaches could be next in the 2025-26 season. 

Hubert Davis is the obvious name to watch on the hot seat. After narrowly sneaking into the NCAA Tournament, and under much controversy, last season, the Tar Heels desperately need to find their way back to even footing with their biggest in-state rivals. Jon Scheyer has kept Duke rolling after taking over for Mike Krzyzewski. UNC has been on more of a roller coaster with Davis after Roy Williams’s retirement. 

UNC spent big on its roster this upcoming season, bringing in a top 10 transfer portal class, so athletic director Bubba Cunningham and the rest of the decision-makers in Chapel Hill won’t be afraid to spend big to move on from Davis if he flops in Year 5 of his tenure. As fanbase pressure ramped up last season, North Carolina finally released the news of a two-year contract extension Davis signed in December to tie him to the program through the 2029-30 season at over $3 million a year. 

Syracuse basketball has not been the same since the move from the Big East to the ACC, aside from a few Cinderella runs in the 2010s, the even Jim Boeheim struggled to win consistently in the new conference. Now, two years into his tenure, Autry has yet to lead Syracuse to the NCAA Tournament, and last season the program finished with a losing record for the first time since 1968-69. 

Because Syracuse is a private university, it does not have to disclose its coaches' salaries, so it’s unclear how costly moving on would be, but for a program that has been slow to invest properly in the NIL era, any cost could be cumbersome. 

While Danny Hurley is on top of the college basketball landscape, his brother Bobby is struggling to hold onto his job at Arizona State. Hurley arrived in Tempe back in 2015 and has led the Sun Devils to the NCAA Tournament three times, but not since 2023 and never with a seed higher than No. 11. Hurley has yet to advance through the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

It’s a rarity in college sports, where stability is a huge asset in recruiting, but the veteran head coach will enter the final year of his contract this season, so while it may not be costly to move on in his case, you may not find a hotter seat than the one out in the desert. 

Fred Hoiberg was the 2024 Big Ten Coach of the Year, and that 23-11 season earned him a significant raise. Hoiberg’s contract extends through the 2028-29 season, and last season he made $4.25 million. At that cost, it was a bit of a disappointment in Lincoln. Hoiberg failed to follow his 2024 NCAA Tournament appearance with another trip in 2025, so he has just one trip to The Big Dance in his six seasons with the program. 

Cornhuskers fans, though their attention is more fixed on the football field, could be running out of patience for Hoiberg, and it could leave the athletic department with its hands tied, potentially forced to move on from its head coach just two years after a major contract extension. 

Last summer, Pitt recommitted to Jeff Capel, handing him a three-year contract extension through the 2029-30 season. He has been in Pittsburgh for seven years now, and the Panthers have just one NCAA Tournament trip to show for it. 

Pitt may be committed to being a football school in the revenue-sharing era, so the decision makers could be reluctant to move on from Capel and pay the rest of his contract out after this year, but if his team struggles in the ACC once again, the fanbase will be ready for the program to go in another direction.