Indiana coach Tom Allen fired, owed $20.8M buyout, sources say

Indiana has fired football coach Tom Allen, sources confirmed to ESPN on Sunday, a day after the Hoosiers completed their third consecutive losing season.

Allen, who had led Indiana since 2017 after spending a season as the team’s defensive coordinator, finished 33-49 as Hoosiers coach. Indiana dropped its final three games, including Saturday’s rivalry contest at Purdue, to finish 3-9. It had gone 9-26 overall and 3-23 in Big Ten play since the 2020 season.

Indiana reached national prominence in 2020, as the team went 6-2 during the COVID-shortened season and finished No. 12 nationally, its best finish since 1967 (No. 4). In March 2021, Indiana rewarded Allen with a new seven-year contract that increased his salary to $4.9 million annually and included a buyout of $20.8 million if the school chose to fire him before Dec. 1, 2023. The buyout would have dropped to about $8 million in 2024.

Allen is owed his full remaining compensation, according to the contract, but Indiana still went ahead with the change, one of the most expensive in college football history. Indiana’s staff is set to meet around 10 a.m. ET.

The Indianapolis Star first reported Allen’s dismissal Sunday.

Allen, a native of New Castle, Indiana, came up as a high school coach, including at Ben Davis in Indianapolis, before entering the college ranks. He served as an assistant at Arkansas State, Ole Miss and South Florida before joining coach Kevin Wilson’s staff as Indiana defensive coordinator in 2016. Allen took over the program when Wilson resigned after the 2016 season.