On Sunday, Penn State fired head football coach James Franklin following a massively disappointing 3-3 start to the 2025 season. That start included several stunning upset losses, including one to previously winless UCLA last week.
As part of the terms of his firing, Franklin will reportedly receive nearly $50 million in buyout money from Penn State. Funnily enough, Franklin actually has USC to thank for his paycheck being so large.
How exactly is that the case? Well, let’s go back four years to the fall of 2021.
The background
In September 2021, USC fired head coach Clay Helton just two games into the 2021 football season. With a coaching change coming so early, the Trojans had more than two months to conduct their coaching search. Naturally, then, plenty of rumors surfaced during that period, some of which had far more credibility than others.
Reported interest
One of the many coaches who was rumored to be connected to the Trojans during that time was James Franklin. According to those close to USC, the Trojans never actually seriously considered hiring Franklin. The most likely scenario is that the whispers were started by Franklin’s agent, Jimmy Sexton—a.k.a. the most powerful man in all of college football—in an effort to try and get Penn State to give his client a contract extension.
Contract extension
Sure enough, in November 2021, Franklin and Penn State agreed to a new ten-year contract. As with most contract extensions, more guaranteed money also meant that Franklin’s buyout would be significantly larger should Penn State ever want to fire him.
Four years later
Sure enough, four years later, Penn State did indeed fire Franklin. Now, thanks to USC’s “reported interest” back in 2021, Franklin will be receiving nearly $50 million from the university. So when Franklin and his family are sitting on a private beach in Cancun this winter, they better call up former USC athletic director Mike Bohn and thank him.
The ironic twist
The irony in all of this is that when USC fired Helton back in 2021, he also received a hefty buyout, reportedly worth more than $10 million. Helton’s large buyout was due to a contract extension that he received in 2018. Ironically, much of the reason that he received the extension (aside from Lynn Swann being an incompetent AD) was a Rose Bowl victory over Franklin and Penn State the year prior.
So while Franklin can thank USC for his generational wealth, Helton can thank Franklin and Penn State for his. Sports can be funny like that sometimes.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Former Penn State head coach James Franklin has USC to thank for massive buyout check
Reporting by Adam Bradford, Trojans Wire / Trojans Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
