According to reporting by EerSports on Wednesday, West Virginia University recently amended it's separation agreement with Neal Brown to lower the total owed to Brown by over two million dollars after firing him after a six-year tenure as the program's head coach last November. The new agreement will go into effect as of December 3, 2025, coming less than 24 hours after Brown was announced as the new head coach at North Texas.
Brown was initially owed $9.7 million after his contract was terminated, and WVU still owed their former head coach $6.7 million of that after the first year of payments. The contract also included a clause that subtracted any compensation for football-related employment Brown may earn through the end of 2027, which saved WVU $45,000 this past year while Brown was employed at Texas as a special assistant to he head coach.
BREAKING: @EerSportsDotCom has learned #WVU and former football coach Neal Brown updated their original separation agreement.
— Mike Casazza (@mikecasazza) December 3, 2025
Brown's new job and salary at North Texas will have no bearing on two hefty payments headed Brown's way.https://t.co/EM4Pwevobf
But Brown and West Virginia revisited the agreement, potentially anticipating he would be hired, and negotiated the amount owed to a final buyout of $4.4 million over the course of two more future payments. This saves WVU a pretty penny compared to what was previously owed, but Brown's new contract details aren't available as of yet, so how much would have been offset (and whether it's a higher figure than $2.3 million) by his new deal is still unknown.
Brown will take over the gig at North Texas after the Mean Green lost head coach Eric Morris to Oklahoma State. He will take over a program that is currently 11-1 and playing this weekend for an American Conference Championship and potential playoff bid.