The Nebraska Cornhuskers aren’t inspiring a lot of belief in their fanbase at the moment.
Instead, there are questions about whether Matt Rhule’s tenure could be over sooner rather than later, with those sparked to get even louder by a Friday loss to Illinois.
Rhule’s contract, and the associated buyout, won’t make it easy, though.
One national college football writer has pointed out that the commitment Nebraska has made to Rhule could change the entire calculus of his future with the Cornhuskers.
Matt Rhule’s ‘Prohibitive’ Contract
Yahoo’s Dan Wolken wondered in a new column whether Rhule’s contract is too “prohibitive” to move on from.
“The pressure goes up week by week, and Rhule wears it poorly, without articulating a plan to get things fixed,” Wolken writes. “It’s hard to see how any of this gets better this season. And if Rhule is back in 2027 because the contract is simply too prohibitive, the school should prepare for an onslaught of unhappiness from its fan base.”
The problem, which Wolken analyzed in his column, is that Nebraska may have jumped the gun on this deal. When there were whispers that Penn State might pursue Rhule to replace James Franklin, the Cornhuskers gave Rhule a couple more years on his contract.
“After Penn State fired James Franklin a year ago, Nebraska chose to extend Rhule through 2032, saddling the school with a buyout in the $60 million range,” Wolken writes. “Because of Rhule’s close relationship with Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft (they worked together at Temple) and ties to the school (Rhule went to high school in State College and played at Penn State), he was going to be their No. 1 choice. Nebraska felt at the time the program was on the right track and didn’t want to go into coach search mode so they made the long-term investment to keep him. It now looks like the wrong decision, but that’s in the past. The question is what Nebraska can do to now to either triage the situation or extricate the school from it.”
At this point, the only way Nebraska can get out is for a lot of money.
Matt Rhule Buyout Details
Rhule’s specific buyout cost rose with the two-year extension. Because his contract is 90% guaranteed, it means those two additional years added a lot more money that would have to be bought out if Rhule is let go.
According to USA Today, Rhule had a buyout of $63 million entering the 2026 season.
That will go down over time, but not particularly quickly. Nebraska is backed into a corner, and there isn’t a great way out.
Nebraska’s Matt Rhule Contract is ‘Prohibitive’