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Ryan Day buyout details: What Ohio State would have to pay if it fires Day
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Ryan Day may be on the hot seat following Ohio State’s 4th consecutive loss to Michigan.
The loss was particularly painful, as Ohio State was at home and favored by 3 touchdowns over the struggling Wolverines. Instead of clinching a berth in the Big Ten Championship Game, though, Ohio State fell to 10-2 on the season and will have to wait to see if it will earn an at-large berth in the Playoff.
With yet another loss to Michigan on Day’s résumé, Ohio State fans began calling for him to be fired on Saturday afternoon.
Day’s contract details are public since Ohio State is a public university. His most recent extension came after the 2022 season, giving him a deal that runs through the end of the 2028 season.
If Ohio State decides to fire Day this week, it would cost $37,276,042, as of Dec. 1, 2024. That’s according to information in USA Today’s coaching salary database. It’s the 17th-highest buyout in the country, per USA Today.
While that may seem like an exorbitant amount of money, there is precedent for programs paying even higher buyouts to fire a coach. Most notably, Texas A&M reportedly committed to paying a $77.5 million buyout to Jimbo Fisher last offseason.
Of course, the situation in College Station was very different from what Day faces in Columbus. Texas A&M went 10-14 in SEC play over Fisher’s final 3 seasons at the helm. Ohio State has lost a grand total of 5 Big Ten games over the past 6 seasons — it just so happens that 4 of them have been to the Wolverines.
Day is 66-10 overall as Ohio State’s head coach.
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
