Lane Kiffin's New Deal Pays Him $13 Million Per Year And Includes An 80% Buyout

The college football regular season is done. With conference championships on the horizon, Lane Kiffin's decision to leave Ole Miss for LSU is making the major headlines. The Rebels are 11-1 and in line to make the College Football Playoff. The Tigers finished as a middle of the pack team and are in the midst of a $54 million buyout lawsuit with their former coach, Brian Kelly. Yet Kiffin decided that Baton Rouge is where he needed to be, and the Tigers are paying him handsomely.

LSU beat writer Wilson Alexander shared details of Kiffin's term sheet, and it's got lots of perks. The deal is worth $91 million over seven years. Kiffin will make $13 million per season, which is second only to Georgia's Kirby Smart, who's making $13.28 million. However, Kiffin's contract includes escalators for advancing in the playoff. Those escalators could reach up to $4 million if the Tigers won both the SEC championship and a national title in the same season. That would make Kiffin by far the highest-paid coach in all of college football.

But there's more to the deal. Kiffin's contract also includes a buyout worth 80% of his remaining salary if he's fired without cause. Should that happen in year one of the deal, Kiffin would be owed $72.8 million. If he did get fired, he'd receive monthly installments through 2032—even if he got another job elsewhere.

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Throughout his career, Kiffin has amassed a record of 117-53 over 14 seasons. He's never won a national championship, which is something the Tigers believe he can achieve. Kiffin will be coming off a hot stretch, too. The Rebels have won at least 10 games in four of the past five years, including a program-record 11-win regular season this year. Ole Miss also won 11 games in 2023, though that included a victory in the Peach Bowl.

Kiffin won't be coaching the Rebels during this postseason, though. The Ole Miss administration turned down his request to do so as it moves on without him. Instead, he'll start getting to work at LSU. The school also plans to give Kiffin $25 to $30 million per season to build his roster through name, image, and likeness (NIL) money. Kelly spent around $18 million on LSU's 2025 team, though it only led to a 7-5 finish for the Tigers.

The decision to leave Ole Miss included many factors, but one element that seemed to tip the scales toward LSU was a call from Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry. The governor expressed his enthusiasm for Kiffin and supported LSU's efforts to hire him. It was a quick 180 from Landry's previous stance. He criticized former LSU athletic director Scott Woodward for offering Kelly a one-sided deal after giving Jimbo Fisher an even more outlandish deal while at Texas A&M. Fisher is receiving payments from a $76 million buyout through 2031.

"We are not doing that again. And you know what? I believe that we're going to find a great coach," Landry said during an Oct. 29 news conference. A month later, the school had found its replacement, offering an even wilder contract than what Kelly had.

It seems both Landry and the school are willing to make an exception for Kiffin. He just agreed to his contract over the weekend, and already, he has the weight of massive expectations on his shoulders.