Mark Stoops Negotiated a Buyout? Alan Cutler Shared a Story Everyone is Talking About

During tumultuous times, sparks quickly become flames. One was ignited around Big Blue Nation on Friday afternoon by Alan Cutler, when the former TV anchor who chased Billy Gillespie, shared a story on his WLXG radio show from last fall about Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops.

“Mark Stoops went to Mitch Barnhart after the Tennessee game and said he wanted out, and he would negotiate the buyout,” Cutler said in a statement that was filled with long pauses. Listen for yourself.

Mark Stoops wanted OUT of Kentucky and told that to the UK Athletics Director…from today’s NO Filter Show with @cutler1300 Listen to the full show here https://t.co/W2yuFOoFtA… pic.twitter.com/cPKVNwY2SI

— alan cutler (@cutler1300) October 3, 2025

If this sounds familiar, it’s because it is. Rumors swirled that Stoops was considering stepping down and retiring. He was directly asked during a November press conference if he was considering it.

“Zero percent chance I do that,” he quickly responded. “Next question.”

There was smoke behind those rumors for a reason. Mark Stoops spent most of the 2024 calendar year voicing his displeasure over Kentucky’s NIL situation. At pretty much every turn, money and fundraising were a part of the conversation. Those frustrations, and a bunch of losses, eventually boiled up and led to a meeting between Barnhart and Stoops during the bye week.

What exactly was said during that conversation? We don’t know all of the details, but we do know that there were discussions about Kentucky’s NIL fundraising efforts and Stoops’ contract.

“FWIW Stoops was not taking a buyout last year for (less) than the full value of his contract,” Matt Jones shared on social media. “So Mitch would not have agreed to that either way.”

Jones added on Saturday’s pregame show: “Mark Stoops and Mitch Barnhart had a conversation about the future. It was put to me that Mark Stoops basically said, ‘If you don’t want me to be here, you can buy me out.’ It wasn’t an angry thing. It was in the conversation… I don’t think he went to him and said, ‘I want out.'”

Stoops changed his tone in public drastically ahead of the trip to Texas. When asked about NIL and fundraising, instead of complaining, he said this: “It is what it is, and we’re figuring it out. And I’m completely excited about the future and getting these problems solved.”

Now that we are living in the future, the financial problems have been solved, but there are still issues on the field. Unless those get fixed and Kentucky starts winning some SEC football games, these sort of sparks will fly on a regular basis around Big Blue Nation.

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