Auburn paid Gus Malzahn $21.45 million to pack up his stuff and never coach the Tigers again. Tennessee owes Central Florida $6 million in combined buyouts for new athletics director Danny White and coach Josh Heupel.
Availability and increased financial flexibility on both sides allowed UCF and Malzahn to connect on a five-year deal worth $2.3 million annually. It's a bargain-basement deal relative to Malzahn's ample SEC experience and the program's goals of reaching the College Football Playoff and aligning itself for the next round of conference expansion.
On paper, Malzahn and UCF are the dream marriage of the 2020-21 coaching cycle, which was expected to barely make a whisper amid the COVID-19 pandemic but still yielded 15 changes, down from 24 moves a year ago.