The University of Wisconsin was on the hook for more than $1.5 million of salary due to former football offensive coordinator Phil Longo when he came off the active books in January.
Longo’s new job as head coach at Sam Houston State, however, has changed the math.
The salary Longo makes coaching the Bearkats gets subtracted from the amount Wisconsin owed him in the buyout of his contract through its scheduled end date. He was making $1.25 million per year with the Badgers.
Longo’s contract with Sam Houston State, released through an open records request, pays him a prorated amount of a $600,000 annual salary until September, when his salary goes up to $700,000.
That leaves the Badgers to pay around $675,000, minus withholdings, to Longo between his official departure from Wisconsin’s payroll in the middle of January and when his contract would have ended, March 31, 2026.
Wisconsin fired Longo on Nov. 17, one day after the Badgers lost 16-13 to No. 1 Oregon at Camp Randall Stadium. His termination agreement, dated Nov. 17, wasn’t signed until Dec. 17 and it spelled out that he stayed on the payroll using vacation and personal leave through Jan. 15.
Longo’s Wisconsin contract called for him to be paid the full amount remaining in the employment agreement if the school fired him without cause. That language continued into the document formalizing Longo’s departure, officially called a mutual termination of agreement and release.
That document also included a standard clause that prevents Longo and the university from “making or publishing any disparaging or derogatory remarks about the other, including the University, its Division of Intercollegiate Athletics, its services, or the management thereof.”
Longo was introduced Dec. 18 as coach at Sam Houston State, which moved up from the Football Championship Subdivision to the Football Bowl Subdivision in 2023 as part of a move to Conference USA.
