Mark Stoops Sets the Record Straight on NIL, Funding, and Kentucky Football’s Future

For years, Kentucky fans would have paid to hear Mark Stoops say “back to work” rather than his latest grievances with finances and fundraising surrounding NIL. The Kentucky head football coach was eager to discuss dollars and cents on Monday, yet with a much different tone and direction than in the past.

In what may have been his most entertaining and informative press conference since he began his public feud with John Calipari, Stoops called out multiple reporters for asking repeat questions — “I caught you slipping” — then cut off his SID to extend the conversation a good five minutes longer than the allotted time.

The Kentucky football team has some late-season momentum ahead of a road trip to play No. 12 Vanderbilt. Like the entire team, Mark Stoops has some extra juice. That confidence manifested in the form of a candid conversation about the big-picture issues this program must tackle in the offseason.

Stoops Wanted to Set the Record Straight

Let’s start from the beginning. The tone was set ahead of the 2024 season when Stoops told Darrell Bird that he felt “very isolated, very alone,” while fundraising to meet payroll demands. A year removed from his “pony up” comments, to fans, it sounded like one big fat complaint about his job. The Kentucky head coach gets it. He just wants it to be clear that it was his way of trying to find as much money as possible to build a roster.

“Going back to that, and just get the record straight since we’re having a nice conversation in here today, but I’ve never been anti-anything. I want to pay the players. The portal should help us. It does. I just want money. Money to spend on (players). Make sense? It’s good for us,” Stoops said on Monday.

“It’s just anything in the past, maybe it was a way to shake some trees to see if some money will fall off. You know what I mean? Because more money, you’re able to buy, you’re able to retain the players that deserve that money, and you’re able to fill spots. Let’s just call it the way it is now. Like I’ve told you in here a couple times before, I was uncomfortable talking about that in 2021, 2022. You know, you don’t want to sit here and say, ‘Man, I don’t have any money. I mean, I don’t have enough money!’ First of all, nobody cares. It’s not an excuse. It’s over with. I’m done with it, you know what I mean. It’s just kind of factual, make sense?”

He added: “Sometimes people take a little thing and say, ‘Well, he’s crying about it again.’ No, I’m not. No, I’m not. I’m like, glad we’re trying to move past it.”

The Source of Income has Changed

Part of the reason Stoops probably felt uncomfortable asking for money in the past is that the money had to come directly from fans and boosters. The calculus has changed.

The athletic department is solely responsible for creating the budget for Kentucky’s football roster. Revenue-sharing dollars account for most of it. Schools can also use NIL dollars to fund rosters. What makes Kentucky unlike its counterparts is that it moved the NIL Collective in-house for JMI to operate. Elsewhere around the SEC, NIL Collectives are still able to operate like it’s the Wild Wild West.

Is this a system that’s going to give the football program enough money to build a roster? Stoops can’t say with certainty.

“I don’t want to give any headline on that right now. We have good momentum, and we’re really doing things, and we’re working the best we can,” said Stoops.

“It’s very complicated on how you can spread that money around. I mentioned it before, I’m on the record, I thought it helped us in recruiting guys we have locked in. We need to retain, and then we have to have some money to get some free agents. So we’re working through that as hard as we can.”

Retention is the Top Priority for Kentucky

The inspiration for this conversation is all derived from the way Kentucky’s young players are performing at the end of the season. This program has momentum because they have a redshirt freshman quarterback from the state of Kentucky who is outperforming lofty expectations. The question Kentucky fans are now asking is, “Can we keep Cutter Boley?”

It’s not just the quarterback. Kentucky has a group of talented young wide receivers, the EDGE players are playing top-notch football, and they’re bringing winning intangibles to build around. The Wildcats have a solid foundation, but Stoops needs the financial support to build on that foundation.

Retention is this roster’s top priority. “It’s absolutely huge. It’s what’s most important,” said Stoops. “Let’s keep the ones that the fans want to see, these young men that I’m bragging on that are good kids that are playing their hearts out, win or lose, through good times and bad, those are the ones we want to start with, right? That retention is huge, to have the dollars to keep them.”

This year’s free agency period will be unlike any other in the past. The transfer portal opens on Jan. 2, and Stoops believes that additional time will help the Cats’ retention efforts.

“That won’t stop young men from declaring (for the transfer porta). I think it is good to let you get your feet on the ground. You know what I mean? Get your roster straightened out here, get the retention, get the meetings with your players, and get a plan for your own team, and then move on to the portal,” Stoops said.

Stoops has Eye Toward the Future

For most of the season, BBN not only questioned if Mark Stoops was capable of coaching this team, but they also didn’t know if he had the fire, passion, and energy to want to continue coaching at Kentucky.

The schedule opened up just as the team began to hit a different gear. They’re one win away from returning to the postseason. Mark Stoops is adamant that his team is taking it one game at a time, but today’s comments made it clear that he’s in it for the long haul. For Kentucky to truly capitalize on late-season momentum, the program must have the funding to build on this season’s success, and he’s willing to use his pulpit to preach his long-term plan into place.