Sam Pittman buyout: Detailing potential cost to fire Arkansas head football coach

Sam Pittman’s time as the Arkansas head coach may be running short as the Razorbacks are off to an extremely poor start at 2-6 in 2023 on the heels of a 7-6 season a year ago.

If the season continues the way it’s started, Pittman could very well be fired at or before the end of the year. If that does happen, let’s look at the financials on what a buyout would look like for the Pit-Boss.

Let’s start with the total deal. In the spring of 2022, Sam Pittman signed a contract extension just after a terrific 9-4 season with the Hogs. That deal technically kicked in during January of 2021 even though it was signed later in the year. The base salary was $5 million over each of the next five years. However, that got extended to six years when Arkansas beat Kansas in the Liberty Bowl last year for their seventh win, since Pittman needed just one season with seven or more wins in order to trigger an automatic sixth year of the deal.

So, with the base salary, he’s got $20 million coming his way over the next four years. But there’s also retention bonuses Pittman is set to receive. Now, these are strange. Basically, Pittman has an extra $1 million baked into his contract each year through these retention bonuses, starting at an even $1,000,000 before increasing by $100,000 each season. So he is paid an extra $1 million for 2022, then $1.1 million for this 2023 season and so on. But he doesn’t earn those retention payments until December of 2024, so the bonuses from ’22 and ’23 would be tacked onto his buyout since he has not received them but is still owed them.

So you add those to the $20 million due to him over the next four years through the end of the deal and it’s $22.1 million he’s still owed. Now, let’s get to the actual buyout language in the contract.

Pittman is due just 75% of that total if he’s fired and the team’s record since the start of the 2021 season is at or above .500. Right now, following the loss to Mississippi State, he’s 18-16. On the other hand, if Arkansas were to lose the next three games and he drops to sub-.500 since 2021, the buyout would then drop to just 50% of the total he’s owed.

Got that? Let’s draw it out:

With .500 or better record: 75% of a $22.1 million buyout = $16,575,000
With a below-.500 record: 50% of a $22.1 = $11,050,000

Arkansas can fire Sam Pittman tomorrow and owe that first figure. But if they wait around and hope he loses the rest of the games this year, they’ll save roughly five million bucks. So don’t expect Pittman out tomorrow.

In fact, winning games could be to his disadvantage. If Arkansas decides this week they’re ready to move on from Pittman regardless of how the year ends, they just have to wait for him to win one more game, thus guaranteeing the .500 record since he’d have 19 wins to 16 losses with just three games left. If he does that, the buyout is locked in. If he keeps losing and ends with a 2-10 season, that lower buyout figure is back on the table.

Furthermore, if he loses his next three, Arkansas can fire him at the $11 million figure before he has a chance to win the last game and get it back to the $16 million number. There’s a lot of chess to be played with this one if the Hogs do decide to move on from Pittman.

If Arkansas loses to Florida and Auburn in their next two games, Pittman could be coaching with roughly $5 million on the line in one single game vs. FIU in the Razorbacks’ penultimate regular season game. Lose all three and he’ll be fired for certain after the FIU game. If he wins any of them, that’s $5 million extra he’s owed.