Reinvestment is a New Coaching Carousel Trend

“As the Coaching Carousel Spins” sounds like a soap opera from the 70s. With two weeks left in the regular season, the most dramatic event college football has to offer has slowed to a crawl, the quiet before the storm.

For what felt like six straight weeks, at least one coach a week was getting canned. There were a dozen vacant jobs after the first Saturday in November. We’ve now entered a holding pattern, as Virginia Tech puts the heat on James Franklin to make a decision, and Lane Kiffin has a bye week to figure out his future.

The Coaching Carousel injects excitement into fanbases. Hope is the most powerful drug in this sport, and change manufactures hope instantly. Not every school is willing to make a change to create hope.

On Sunday afternoon, we learned that Maryland is retaining Mike Locksley for the 2026 season. After rattling off three straight bowl victories to cap off winning seasons, the Terps are staring down the barrel at consecutive 4-win campaigns. Despite the dip, Maryland’s new athletic director is committed to Lockley and believes more financial backing will lead to better results.

“Our goals remain clear: build a program that competes for Big Ten Championships and earn a place in the College Football Playoff. Achieving those goals requires consistency, commitment, and alignment at every level. With the support of President Pines, Maryland Athletics is committed to making the necessary investment in our football program to position us to achieve these goals.

“At the conclusion of the season, Coach Locksley, Senior Deputy Athletic Director Diana Sabau, and I will review every aspect of our football program to make sure we are focused on getting the right type of resources in the right places to build a successful football program in this new era of college football.”

— Maryland AD Jim Smith

This is the second time this season that a Big Ten athletic director has committed to financially investing in a coach, rather than firing them. Luke Fickell received similar assurances from the Wisconsin AD before the Badgers logged a Big Ten win this fall.

Why Reinvesting Makes Sense During this Coaching Carousel

Is investing in coaches after failing seasons a good idea? It’s easy to criticize and declare that it is just another example of schools believing in the sunk cost fallacy. After all, athletic directors prefer retention over making a new hire. If they hire the wrong guy, it could cost them their job.

This Coaching Carousel presents difficult challenges for schools like a Wisconsin or a Maryland. The pool of qualified candidates is not growing, but with each termination, that demand is amplified exponentially. Penn State is getting first dibs on a new coach in that league. The Nittany Lions are probably behind LSU, Auburn, and Florida in the national pecking order.

This brings up the best argument for reinvestment. Wisconsin fans expect the Badgers to be an 8-10 win team, among the Top 5ish in the Big Ten. Is that expectation fair if they do not have the budget of a Top 5 program in the Big Ten?

In professional sports, nobody was all that surprised that the Dodgers easily handled the Reds in the NL Wild Card. The Reds spent approximately $112 million on their roster, ranking 23rd in the MLB. The Dodgers more than doubled it with a $281 million payroll, the highest in Major League Baseball. It ended up buying them a second straight World Series.

In the era of NIL and revenue-sharing, you get what you pay for. We saw it last year in Lexington. Kentucky probably had the lowest payroll in the SEC, only around $5 million. It showed. They more than doubled the budget for the 2025 season. It allowed them to fix the offensive line, which has given their young quarterback enough time to develop. Now there is a belief in Big Blue Nation that Kentucky is turning a corner.

The Coaching Carousel traditionally required terminations to create momentum. Now, schools are trying to buy it. That plan only works if the right person is in place to use those resources to build a winning roster.