Tell us how you would have done it.
Pope’s BYU Buyout
- Thread starter Slowwalker
- Start date
This thread is shockingly stupid. There were probably dozens of other threads discussing Cals or Stoops contracts. How many years were left. Money. Buyouts. Mitch didn't believe in them.
I guess it explains why every now and then someone would write "All I know is they gotta get rid of him." I never took it that literally.
I guess it explains why every now and then someone would write "All I know is they gotta get rid of him." I never took it that literally.
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Hardly anyone did apparently. I know I didn't. I know i never saw it anywhere before now. No wonder, its an embarrassing amount to pay on top of the other stuff and Mitch no doubt preferred it quiet.
Again i love Pope but we massively overpaid for a poor resume considering the guy would've crawled here.
What is Stoops buyout if another team hires him? Barnhart lets the agents write the contracts.
Idk about Stoops. He may have a buyout, I can't remember if it was said he would owe the school or not when everyone thought he was gone to aTm.
I'm mean he's not Kirby and is overpaid considering his on field production.
Pope didn't have the clout to NOT have a buyout clause in his BYU contract.
Guarantee you Cal doesn't have one at Arkansas.
I'd say most SEC coaches have some sort of buyout clause if another school wanted to hire them .
Pearl, Oats and Barnes could be the exceptions also.
Thank you Arkansas for saving the UK athletic dept $32M. 
Cal has one at Arkansas. It's also $6 million that he would need to pay Arkansas if he left for another job.
Of course Pope didn't have the leverage. Guess BYU has an AD that isnt an incompetent negotiator.
Pope also didn't have the leverage when we hired him either, but didn't stop us from paying him bank and guaranteeing much of it.
For comparison on only buyout, iirc Pope's UK contract has a rapidly reducing buyout that basically goes away if Mitch isn't the AD.
The UK deal is an insane contract for anyone with that resume.
I agree with your last sentence. I believe he's in the top 7 of highest paid college basketball coaches. He's at $5 million in his first year. There are a couple interesting caveats in his contract:
1. The buyout the university pays him if he's fired without cause is paid out monthly over the life of his contract. That's a change from Cal that needed to be made.
2. Pope would owe UK 33% of hie remaining salary if he leaves UK for another job if Mitch is still the AD and 20% if Mitch is not the AD.
I'm not sure what Pope made at BYU as it's private so the info isn't out there. It's reported that their new coach is making $4.3 million per year. If I could guess, I'd say Pope was probably around $2.5 give or take. I think $4 million annually would have probably been a fair salary for Pope. Maybe his worth as a coach is $3.5 million, but there has to be a bump for the expectations of being the coach at UK imo.
TBD...but certainly trending not in that direction.
Yes
For Stoops' contract as well.
While it wasn't presented that way publicly...Do you think he didn't discuss the Arkansas job with Arkansas representatives while still employed by UK?
This has always been my take on the entire thing. He did have those discussions. With whom and whether or not they were "official" discussions are up for debate. Mitch got wind of it and set the UK legal team into motion. At some point (dog walk in the stroller) Cal had buyer's remorse on leaving for Arky. Mitch and UK told him they were going to sue for breach of contract. Cal knew he was cooked. So he took the Arky $$$ and that was that. So if we're splitting hairs, no there was no breach of contract...but if we're not splitting hairs and calling it what it was...it seems like a hard argument to make otherwise.
If as an AD you hire a guy and then try to low ball him on a contract, doesn't that say " I really wanted someone else but had to settle for you so I want to get you at a bargain"
I don't think that's the way an AD and coach want to start a relationship.
The AD needs to be all in until he has a reason not to be.
If you add the buyout amount to Mark's total contract, that total combined amount still wouldn't have been enough to hire a top of the food chain coach.
So if you can't have Self, Izzo, Hurley, Drew or Oats, who else that would have been a better hire could we have got even with the combined money?
His contracts, period. Coaches agents must salivate when they negotiate with him.
This. If this was a one off, then you could give some grace but Mitch has over paid and under negotiated his entire time at uk.
Interestingly enough, Mitch's most savvy dealing was his first when he refused to overpay guy Morris and let him go to Baylor where he flopped.
No. He doesn't.
It was basically confirmed all over the internet that Cal was in negotations with Arkansas and had not notified Kentucky.
It's self-delusion that so many of you don't look at this situation and realize we had to massively overpay to get even an average coach to come coach here and he was a Kentucky guy. A lot of you are going to start blaming the limitations of the program in this new age of college basketball on Mark Pope and Pope will probably catch a lot of the blame publicly for it, but the primary challenge Kentucky now faces as a program (and this is true of all sports) is they do not have the donor base to compete in the NIL wars to the level of many of their peers. That's why you have to overpay a Mark Pope to coach here.
Stoops is the worst investment in college football right now. Pope has a huge chance to prove himself in the post season thankfully.
Mitch has done some goofy stuff, and deserves criticism.
The buyout was a given for any coach we bought. I don't know how any of you didn't know this was a thing before March 12th. You didn't assume we paid a buyout? You didn't assume it was a few million dollars?
Mark Pope has had an amazing 1st season. I don't understand the outrage of "OH MY GAWD, WE PAID HIS BUYOUT?!?!" This seems like you just want to complain for the sake of complaining.
The buyout was a given for any coach we bought. I don't know how any of you didn't know this was a thing before March 12th. You didn't assume we paid a buyout? You didn't assume it was a few million dollars?
Mark Pope has had an amazing 1st season. I don't understand the outrage of "OH MY GAWD, WE PAID HIS BUYOUT?!?!" This seems like you just want to complain for the sake of complaining.
Yep Stoops has Mitch by the sack right now because of the way he does the contracts. Mitch is just plain dumb and gives the school 0 leverage at all when it comes to contracts with his coaches!!!! It would be a helluva gig to be a coach if Mitch was my boss that’s for damn sure!
Yep paid as a top 10 coach and he gets no where near top 10 results hell he’s never ever even sniffed close to top 10!
fwiw
Kentucky hired Mark Pope, a member of the school's 1996 national championship team, in April of last year. He is set to make $5 million his first year as head coach of his alma mater, not including any postseason performance incentives. His current contract runs through March 31, 2029. If the Wildcats advance to the NCAA Sweet 16, it will trigger an automatic one-year extension with a full-term limit of five years.
Kentucky hired Mark Pope, a member of the school's 1996 national championship team, in April of last year. He is set to make $5 million his first year as head coach of his alma mater, not including any postseason performance incentives. His current contract runs through March 31, 2029. If the Wildcats advance to the NCAA Sweet 16, it will trigger an automatic one-year extension with a full-term limit of five years.
What did Kentucky have to pay Arkansas to take Calipari?
Whatever, money well spent in both cases...
Whatever, money well spent in both cases...
Do other elite programs have the "Go to the sweet 16 get extended a year" clause in their coach's contracts? This is nothing against Pope just doesn't seem needed IMO
Anyone with any understanding of leverage whatsoever knows we could've gotten pope at a discount. Hell had he not played here, his resume would never gotten a second glance.
You're confusing his results with his resume. At the time of hiring, he had his resume which warranted much less. Just look at the buyout for comparison in negotiations.
Mitch sent a message by paying Pope what he did. We pays ours well. We are a premium brand. I have zero issue with it and Pope is worth every dime of it. Go Cats!
Yes he definitely sent a message. The message was "im still overpaying everyone".
Self’s contract automatically extends a year at the end of each season. He’s on a perpetual five year contract. So he actually does have a lifetime contract.
You can't just hire a resume at UK
BCG proves that.
There's not a job in the country where a coach needs complete understanding of what the job entails as much as the UK job.
You don't come here and say " I just want to coach my team"
Why do you feel it's important that MB penny pinch?
If he would have got Pope at 3.5 where would the money saved went?
It can't go to NIL.
The athletic department as a whole including the basketball program is profitable so it's not like Mitch was deficit spending.