Penn State head coach James Franklin reacts against Oregon during the fourth quarter on Sept. 27 in State College, Pa. (AP file photo)

Merely three weeks into the season, UCLA’s DeShaun Foster and Virginia Tech’s Brent Pry were out of a job. Seven weeks later, a half-dozen more coaches were added to the list of midseason firings – and high-profile ones at that.

A quarter of the SEC’s coaches who started the season are gone. So are longtime coaches James Franklin of Penn State and Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy.

It’s not as simple as an uncomfortable conversation and launching a search for the new coach. Universities are on the hook for millions of dollars for coaches they’re no longer employing.

By Week 10, buyout totals for assistant and head coaches have climbed to approximately $185 million, a figure that raises the question of whether athletic departments spending their way out of a headache is still a feasible route to take, especially when higher education funding is under increasing pressure and schools are already sending athletes millions in revenue for the first time.

“It’s not a sustainable pattern,” said Prof. Michael LeRoy, a labor and employment relations expert at Illinois. “Even without revenue sharing, it would be challenging. These figures have been growing exponentially over the past five to 10 years. Power conference coaching contracts are in this escalating spiral that involves larger buyouts, longer terms and more restrictions on terminating contracts.”

While costs build, so do expectations. Making the 12-team College Football Playoff is considered the minimum seasonal goal for some programs. And leverage largely remains in the hands of highly sought-after coaches, the same ones who will inevitably be in talks for some of the top positions in college football at LSU, Florida and Penn State.

So how does the cycle of firing, rehiring and spending stop? It probably doesn’t, according to LeRoy.

“I don’t think schools have the willpower,” he said. “They’re always going to be concerned about what their rivals are doing, and there’s always going to be a rival that will break the bank to hire the best coach.”

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AP sports writers Jim Vertuno, Andrew Destin and Joe Reedy contributed.

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