Report: Auburn owes Bryan Harsin more than $15 million buyout after firing

Auburn announced that it would be firing Bryan Harsin on Halloween–a day before his 46th birthday. Spooky season indeed for the head coach. However, that is going to be made less spooky by the buyout that Auburn owes Harsin.

According to Pete Thamel, Auburn owes Bryan Harsin more than $15 million. Half of that money is due within 30 days of his firing.

There are times when buyout numbers can be negotiated down. This happened with Paul Chryst at Wisconsin this season. He agreed to a reduced buyout of $11 million when he was owed $19.5 million. There are a lot of reasons a coach might choose to do this. However, given Bryan Harsin’s situation at Auburn, it’s doubtful he wants anything less than he is owed.

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The timing of Bryan Harsin’s firing comes almost immediately after Auburn hired a new athletic director. John Cohen, who had previously been Mississippi State’s AD, made it his first order of business to move on from Harsin. Now, he can begin the coaching search for a new head football coach.

When Auburn does go to hire a new head coach, they will likely need to buy that coach out of their contract with their current school on top of paying Harsin and the salary owed to the new coach. On top of that, Auburn is still paying Gus Malzahn his buyout. That was a $21.45 million buyout, nearly $11 million of which was due immediately. The rest is owed over equal, annual installments.

Neither Gus Malzahn nor Bryan Harsin’s buyouts can be offset by them taking a job at another school. That means Auburn is on the hook for the whole thing.

It’s a lot of money to have tied up in coaches who no longer work for the school, which means John Cohen needs to nail this next hire and bring in someone who can rebuild Auburn.

Auburn omitted Bryan Harsin’s name in the statement

After a tumultuous offseason and a couple of difficult seasons on the field, everyone knew it was time for Bryan Harsin and Auburn to both get a fresh start. So, his firing wasn’t a surprise. More surprising, though, was the decision to omit his name from the statement about his firing.

Bryan Harsin is done at Auburn. pic.twitter.com/nJmckGRzaX

— Justin Hokanson (@_JHokanson) October 31, 2022

The statement notes that the university decided to make a change in leadership in the football program. It also states that the search for a new coach begins immediately. However, for one reason or another, Bryan Harsin never came up.