UNBELIEVABLE: Kentucky coach Mark Pope got fired due to…..
New Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope agreed to a five-year deal that will pay him $5 million next season with his salary escalating by $250,000 per year over the course of the contract.
Any season in which Kentucky reaches at least the Sweet 16, Pope’s contract will be extended by one year as long as there are no more than five years remaining on the contract at that time. Each extension would trigger another $500,000 raise.
UK has yet to finalize Pope’s contract, but the Lexington Herald-Leader obtained the term sheet outlining salary and benefits in the contract that Pope signed on April 11 when he agreed to replace John Calipari as coach through the state’s open records law. The term sheet is non-binding, but by signing it both parties agreed to “diligently work toward the execution of a comprehensive employment agreement.”
A $5 million salary would have made Pope the seventh-highest paid coach in the country last season, tied with Connecticut coach Dan Hurley, according to a USA Today database, but the deal still represents a significant savings for Kentucky. Calipari was set to make $8.5 million next season had he not left UK for Arkansas. Calipari’s salary would have risen to $9 million per year for the final four years on the deal that ran through June 2029.
UK athletics director Mitch Barnhart first targeted Baylor coach Scott Drew for the job and reportedly approached Hurley about the position, but both coaches elected to stay at their current schools, where they have already won national championships.
Both would have likely required a higher salary than Pope to coach at Kentucky, but Barnhart chose to target Pope rather than wait on Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan to possibly become available after the end his NBA season.
“I didn’t think I needed to (wait),” Barnhart said after Pope’s introductory news conference. “I was comfortable with who I had. I liked it. I knew where I wanted to go. I had a couple or two or three thoughts at the beginning. It played out. There’s no mystery we we talked to someone first, and Mark knew that. I said this the way it’s going to work. I was comfortable with our process, our research, the people I was talking to. I felt like I was ready to go.”
While Calipari’s UK contract had not included any on-court performance bonuses since 2014, Pope will be rewarded based on UK’s performance each season. He would net $100,000 for an SEC championship, $50,000 for an SEC Tournament title, $25,000 for a team GPA of 3.0 or greater and $25,000 for a team APR score of at least 975. Pope could also receive the largest of a set of bonuses tied to NCAA Tournament finish each season: national championship ($500,000), Final Four ($250,000), Elite Eight ($100,000) and Sweet 16 ($50,000). Pope’s maximum bonus each year is $700,000.
Should Kentucky fire Pope without cause, the school would owe him 75% of his remaining salary. Conversely, if Pope leaves UK for another job before the end of the contract, he would owe the school 33% of his remaining salary. The buyout Pope would owe UK for taking another job drops to 20% of his remaining salary if Mitch Barnhart is no longer the athletics director when Pope leaves.
Per the term sheet, Pope is entitled to standard benefits of university employees. He also will be allotted two late model, luxury automobiles or a standard university head coach vehicle stipend, 30 hours of private jet time for personal use, 20 lower-level tickets for each home men’s basketball game, eight tickets for each home football game, 10 tickets for each away or neutral-site men’s basketball game and membership in one private mutually agreed upon club.
