"I don't know what the contractual relationship is there," Joyner said.
Joyner, who stepped aside as a trustee when he accepted the job as acting athletic director, said the exact severance figure was $4,432,000. He said details of the plan were being worked out by the university's human resources department.
The six assistant coaches who were not retained are: defensive coordinator and interim head coach Tom Bradley; quarterbacks coach Jay Paterno; offensive coordinator Galen Hall; offensive line coaches Dick Anderson and Bill Kenney; and secondary coach Kermit Buggs.
Joyner said some of the former assistants could gain other positions at the university and others could retire. Hall and Anderson are in their 70s.
Mike McQueary, who was receivers coach under Joe Paterno, remains on paid administrative leave, Joyner said.
McQueary is a key witness in the state attorney general's child-molestation case against former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, having testified to a grand jury that he saw Sandusky assaulting a boy in 2002 in a shower at the football facility.
In other football-related news, O'Brien was dealt a blow when linebacker Camren Williams, who had orally committed last March to Penn State, said on Twitter that he would attend Ohio State.
"It's official. I'm a Buckeye! #GoBucks #BuckeyeNation," tweeted the 6-foot-2, 210-pound Williams, who starred at Catholic Memorial High School in West Roxbury, Mass.
Williams is the fourth recruit to back off his commitment to Penn State since Sandusky was indicted Nov. 5. Both he and defensive tackle Tommy Schutt were lost to Ohio State and new head coach Urban Meyer.
