BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) –Tom Allen spent four seasons steadily taking Indiana up the Big Ten ladder.

Then everything came crashing down in college football’s rapidly evolving world.

Three consecutive losing seasons and a three-year conference record of 3-24 cost Allen his dream job on Sunday, when the two sides reached a financial settlement to part ways.

“It has been my greatest professional honor to serve as Indiana’s head football coach for the past seven years,” Allen said in a statement released by his agent. “Representing this university and this state has meant more to me than you can imagine. Our entire journey here has been based on a simple concept – Love. Each. Other. It’s what we’ve done, it’s what we’ll always do. I continue to believe it’s a recipe to change the world.”

Allen had four years remaining on a contract he received in 2021 and was owed $20.8 million. But the athletic department said Allen agreed to take two payments worth $7.75 million, all of which will come from donor funds. It’s the biggest buyout ever paid by a Big Ten school, surpassing the $15 million Scott Frost receiver from Nebraska last year.

Allen’s successes and failures with Indiana mirrored the way college football has changed.

Before name, image and likeness deals and building programs through the transfer portal became the norm, Allen’s teams posted a 24-25 mark and he coached in three bowl games — all losses, the first coming in his college head coaching debut in 2016.

Allen capped the ascension by going 6-2 during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. The Hoosiers celebrated the program’s highest final ranking, No. 12, in The Associated Press Top 25 since finishing fourth in 1967, and Allen was named the Big Ten and AFCA national coach of the year.

He was rewarded with a big contract, but nothing has gone as planned since then.

Going just 9-27 overall and 3-24 in league play were only part of Indiana’s problem. Shrinking crowds, intensifying criticism and a desire among some administrators and boosters not to embrace college sports’ new era created a disadvantage for the Hoosiers on the recruiting trail.