Lincoln Riley's buyout from Oklahoma, salary and compensation in his first USC season cost the Trojans nearly $20 million, according to tax records.
His hire, in late November 2021, was heralded as a monumental moment for USC and its struggling football program. But actually landing Lincoln Riley, one of the brightest young minds in college football, did not come cheap. USC shelled out $19.7 million in reportable compensation to Riley between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023, according to a federal tax return filed by the university and obtained by The Times. Of that nearly $20 million, USC paid its new coach $10.
987 million in severance in 2022, even as he coached the entire season thousands of miles away at Georgia Southern. Helton’s salary to not coach at USC was more than Arizona State’s Kenny Dillingham or Arizona’s Jedd Fisch made in salary last season. Altogether, paying Riley to come to USC and Helton to leave cost the university nearly $24 million in 2022. That wasn’t the only position at which USC was paying a premium.
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