Steve Sarkisian contract, buyout: Sark reportedly has eyes for NFL, but what would it cost Texas to fire him?
If Texas decided to move on from Sarkisian prior to him leaving on his own, they'd owe him an awful lot of money
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The 2025 Texas Longhorns made history as the first Texas team to earn the AP Poll's preseason No. 1 ranking, but Steve Sarkisian's bunch has not lived up to those expectations.
That's led to some frustration in Austin, and on Saturday, hours before Texas was set to go on the road to face Mississippi State, a report emerged that Sarkisian was interested in a move to the NFL and potentially the Tennessee Titans' vacancy. That rumor got quickly shut down by Sarkisian's agent, but it was an indicator that both sides might be looking to the future in Austin.
That's a major change from earlier this year when Sarkisian got another pay bump at Texas, making him one of the nation's five highest-paid coaches. After a 5-2 start and some struggles with Mississippi State on the road, it begged the question: what would it cost for either side to get out of their current deal?
Steve Sarkisian contract, buyout details
Including his $10.8 million salary this season, Sarkisian's contract pays him $75.8 million through the 2031 season. As part of his new deal, not only did he get a pay bump but his buyout jumped from 70% of what he was owed to 85%, which is a significant and important change. That meant coming into this season his buyout jumped to $64.4 million, and if they decided to fire him during the year, USA Today cites his buyout for December 1 as being $60.3 million.
If Texas were to fire him after this season but before 2026, he would be owed $55.25 million. That is an awful lot of money, but it would not be the most we've seen paid by a team in the state of Texas, as Texas A&M paid Jimbo Fisher $75 million to leave College Station not long ago.
As for Sarkisian's reported interest in jumping to the NFL, it's hard to imagine him getting paid in line with his current deal at Texas, either in annual money or contract length. On top of that, his original contract stated that he would owe to Texas $4 million if he left before the end of the 2025 season, with that figure dropping to $3 million to leave before the end of the 2026 season.
It seems unlikely an NFL team would jump at paying that much on top of what it would cost to bring Sarkisian from the college ranks to the pros. Texas, meanwhile, would have to be willing to pay one of the biggest buyouts in history to get rid of Sarkisian, but if there is any program in the country that could come up with $55+ million (depending on the timing of firing him), it would be the Longhorns.
