Three universities are flushing more than $32 million to fire football coaches this month — and at two public schools, that's your money paying for failure.

Baylor, North Carolina State, and Maryland all axed their head coaches in late October, triggering massive buyout clauses that will drain resources from institutions that already hike tuition year after year. CBS Sports reported the staggering figures: Baylor owes Dave Aranda approximately $12 million; NC State owes Dave Doeren $10.3 million; and Maryland owes Mike Locksley $9.75 million.

At NC State and Maryland, both public institutions, those checks get written against state budgets and student fees. Maryland must pay half of Locksley's $9.75 million within 60 days, with no offset even if he lands another job. NC State can spread Doeren's payout in monthly installments, but the total still comes due — for a coach who went 98-73 over 14 seasons and was under contract through 2029.

Baylor, as a private school, doesn't have to release its contracts. But the estimated $12 million buyout for Aranda — who finished 40-40 across seven seasons — comes from the same revenue streams: donors, ticket sales, and the conference television payouts that could otherwise fund academic programs.

The coaching carousel exposes the core racket of university athletics. Administrators hand out long contract extensions to coaches after one good season, then pay fortunes to make them go away when the inevitable slump arrives. Doeren's contract ran through 2029. Locksley's ran through 2028. Both were fired in October, mid-season, because athletic directors decided the product on the field wasn't worth the wait — but the buyout clauses those same administrators negotiated certainly were.

CBS Sports noted that Doeren does have a clause requiring him to make "reasonable efforts" to find another job, which could offset some of what NC State owes. But that's cold comfort to taxpayers footing the bill for a coach who was already paid millions to produce mediocrity.

The Ventura County Star's coverage of the latest coaches poll shows the machine churning along regardless: Georgia sits at No. 3 despite a recent home loss, and the rankings shuffle every week as the sport's financial engine hums. The poll is sponsored by a corporate partner — US LBM — because of course it is. Everything in college football has a price tag.

The question nobody in the academy wants to answer: how many scholarships, how many faculty positions, how many tuition freezes died to fund these buyouts? The administrators who signed these contracts won't be the ones paying for them.