What is Brent Venables' buyout at Oklahoma?

Ahead of the 2026 season, the Oklahoma Sooners signed fifth-year head coach Brent Venables to a contract extension. The new deal extended Venables' contract by two years, keeping him in Norman through the end of the 2031 season. That means Venables is now coaching on a six-year deal, beginning in 2026.

The contract extension was given to Venables by OU Football's administration. That includes university president Joseph Harroz Jr., director of athletics Roger Denny, and chair for football Randall Stephenson. OU's Board of Regents, led by chair Rick Nagel, approved the deal. However, full details weren't released until this past week. Between OU's big win over Texas and its crushing loss to Kentucky, The Oklahoman's Colton Sulley shared details of the report after the university provided the contract details through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Venables' annual compensation is $10 million in 2026, and it will increase by $200,000 each year through the final year of the deal, when he'll earn $11 million in 2031.

Currently, the buyout in Venables' contract is $51.67 million. That's the 12th-highest buyout in college football, and it's a big jump from $26.2 million last year. It'll decrease by $10 million each year until 2030, when it would drop even more to just $5.83 million. In 2031, that buyout would drop significantly again, and would be at just $830,000. The buyout is the money that a school owes a coach if they fire him.

According to George Stoia of SoonerScoop (subscription required), the money would not be paid in one lump sum. Instead, the school would pay it annually over the rest of the contract. If Venables were to take another full-time coaching job, the buyout would decrease by the amount his new school pays him."

Venables also has several performance-based bonuses built into his contract. However, he would no longer receive a bonus for making or winning a bowl game. Instead, he'd get bonuses for participating in or winning the conference championship game (which would not exist in the current proposal for a 24-team playoff), participating in or winning games in the College Football Playoff, winning conference or national Coach of the Year honors, or having a team with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher in any semester.

Oklahoma has started 3-3 through the first half of the 2026 season. Despite high expectations entering the year, the season hasn't gone the way the Sooners wanted. However, Venables still seems to have the faith of the administration that gave him the extension and raise back in August. After OU's first loss of the season against Michigan, Denny was asked about his disappointment in how the Sooners played in their first test of the season.

"I’m as disappointed as everyone, as disappointed as every one of our fans, as disappointed as every one of our players, as disappointed as every one of our coaches, including Brent Venables," Denny said. "But that doesn’t change how I feel about the long-term future of our program."