Matt Jones says UK will not have as much NIL for next season

[UKGrad24]

Boosters aren’t going to save Pope’s a**. They got screwed once before, they’re not going to waste their money on a lame duck coach.

I’ve said this a lot. I know he doesn’t have the support of some of them. I know if for a fact. I’ve said he won’t have as much money moving forward. You don’t even have to know anyone to see it. Mark is done at UK. And the way he acted toward some of those guys he needs was basically the end of him before he began. Some people just don’t want to believe it and think everyone is lying.

It’s incredible to me that anyone supports Mark Pope for another season. It’s absolutely mind boggling you want more of this guy. He’s a train wreck. Has no idea what he’s doing. And I be damned If like 2 out of 10 are incapable of understanding it.

 

[AJG-15]

Kentucky scheme comes to an end :

- give contracts to incompetent coaches and administration saying that money is from Athletics dept budget or private donors.

- they spent money like there is no tomorrow on private jets and bonuses and retirement gigs or made up positions after retirement…

- sign NIl managing contracts where there is conflict of interest and for unreasonable period of time which smells of corruption.

- spent money on capital projects unnecessary based the consultancy of the same AD that last year put the athletics department in deficit both on ordinary expense ( salary, and regular expenses) and capital projects to the point that Athletic department needs to barrow money from the university fund , which comes from tuition and Commonwealth appreciation ..



the same incompetence was shown by the president and AD handling the Relationship over the years with HOF coach John Calipari., who finally left without costing the university a penny…..they didnt appreciate in their corrupt arrogance the gift given to the university and BBN by Calipari and hired who they hired….


this Is the same university that mistreated Rupp……I guess it’s expected to mistreat John Calipari and the whole fan base with incredible expensive tickets and horrible decisions year after year To the point that BBN is not even showing up to the games.

 

[wildcatdon]

And yet we crap on Cal but left us without taking a buyout while Pope really is holding us hostage by refusing to do the graceful thing and resigning. Pope might be a scumbag if he knows that he’s not going to make it next year but chooses to come back anyway.

Cal didn’t “take” a buyout because he violated his contract and got caught. He was lucky Arkansas came calling.

 

[Yardeth]

If Pope wanted to win for Kentucky, he’d know he’s not the answer and resign. He’s currently holding the program hostage and is leaving no takers.

When does Pope realize he is over his head as coach of Kentucky? If he is a man of word and has integrity he would step down but he actually thinks he can do it is the problem.

 

[preacherfan]

When does Pope realize he is over his head as coach of Kentucky? If he is a man of word and has integrity he would step down but he actually thinks he can do it is the problem.

The problem with Pope leaving is that HE has to buyout his contract if he leaves. I don't think ANY rational person is going to do that. The only option for him to leave is for it to be mutual and UK agree to change the terms of the departure. It has nothing to do with "integrity" in any way, shape or form.

 

[K_TIME]

Well leta hold on a minute with the “we’re broke “ stuff

1. Boosters and fan NIL is part of the funding
2. But the university gets crazy money from sec tv contracts to the tune of 72M per school.
3. Not to mention tix sales merchandise and amenities

So I get that money is spread over some other areas…but Mitch and capiluo are acting like politicians with this money. They like giving it away at their whelms….and it’s a timeline this that the other stuff takes a back seat and the program gets that money

 

[legalbeagle123]

Copy of email sent to president's office, BOT, and athletic department:

I am a 1999 UK graduate and lifelong fan and supporter of UK Athletics. I will keep this as short and as respectful as I can. I do not believe that President Capitulo or Mr. Barnhart have any real idea how completely out of touch they are with the boosters and fanbase right now. Kentucky Basketball should be a program that is virtually indestructible, yet Mr. Barnhart has managed to ruin it twice in his career (Gillispie, "lifetime" contract with Cal, and now Pope). The contract with JMI is an offense worthy of termination in and of itself. Who in their right mind binds themselves to a 15-year agreement of this type? Any conflicts of interest at play there? And now we are slapped in the face with the news that a made-up position has been created to give Mr. Barnhart a golden parachute to the tune of millions of dollars. This is a complete fleecing of the athletic department. To further rub salt in these wounds, we are now hearing that the athletic department is hurting for money and calls for more fundraising are going out. I myself received a call last week. Do these two men live in reality? Are they prepared for a half-full (at best) Rupp Arena next season for home games? Please, someone with any common sense take control of this situation and restore order and decency.

 

[Loucatfan30]

Cal didn’t “take” a buyout because he violated his contract and got caught. He was lucky Arkansas came calling.

Cal was never taking the money. He is the only coach we have had with a crazy high buyout that anyone would want to hire. Stoops was always going to get his money and we will have to pay Pope because nobody at a real program will want to hire him.

 

[Loucatfan30]

When does Pope realize he is over his head as coach of Kentucky? If he is a man of word and has integrity he would step down but he actually thinks he can do it is the problem.

Nope he is not a man of his word. He is a con man.

 

[kfwa]

The best thing we could do is recruit an entire D2 championship team.

that's kinda brilliant

 

[kfwa]

here is the issue with NIL money

Kansas - home
Florida - home
UNC - home
Kentucky - home


what has been proved is that throwing money at 19 year olds doesn't result in a deep tourney run.

worse, its getting coaches fired because everyone at the moment thinks a coach can buy a championship team in the off season.

If you are a donor and you're giving $125K, $500K, $1m, $5m to the school and you realize that high end performance can't be bought for unproven kids , you're going to cut back.

 

[megablue]

Boo$ter$ may no longer be "bought in" to Pope's coaching tenure.

 

[JonathanW2]

Let's assume the 20.7-22M #'s for this past year are correct.
Let's also assume Matt is correct. The next question is how much less?
So for that let's assume 25% less, which would put us in the $15.5-16.5M range.
Then the next question after that, is how would you propose that amount be spent (without knowing names of who returns or who we add)?
Would it be more flat ($1-1.5/player) or some separation, or significant separation?

I would propose:
2 guys - $3-4M each
2 guys - $1.5-2M each
4 guys - $0.75-1.25M each
4 guys - $0.25-0.5M each
That comes out to 12 guys for $13-19M, but probably about $16M. And this clearly gives you 8 guys who you are counting on to be a key contributor, and then 4 more guys to be ready to step in if needed.

I don't think anyone who could return is a $3-4M guy. I suppose you could say JQ could be a $3-4M guy, but since he is in the <5% chance to return category I think it's safe to say we have no one who might return in that group.
Even in the $1.5-2M group, maybe Chandler or Moreno or MoD. But Moreno is the only one of those who I'd say "for sure yes" to in that group, the other 2 I think could be in the $0.75-1.25M group.
I see Noah & Hawthorne & Potter in the $0.25-0.5 group.

 

[Zannman]

I don’t want Pope fired because I don’t want Barney hiring the next coach.

 

[Beatle Bum]

Didn’t EVERYONE know that this next year will be different after revenue sharing came into play? Is this news???

 

[rick64]

I think he's basing his comments on what Jack Givens has said and the interview with Dr Capitouto who was going on about the university cutting costs.

 

[CutNets]

I’ve said this a lot. I know he doesn’t have the support of some of them. I know if for a fact. I’ve said he won’t have as much money moving forward. You don’t even have to know anyone to see it. Mark is done at UK. And the way he acted toward some of those guys he needs was basically the end of him before he began. Some people just don’t want to believe it and think everyone is lying.

It’s incredible to me that anyone supports Mark Pope for another season. It’s absolutely mind boggling you want more of this guy. He’s a train wreck. Has no idea what he’s doing. And I be damned If like 2 out of 10 are incapable of understanding it.

Another scary notion is just how fooled many of us were on the abilities of some players. Two weeks ago I'm in a conversation with a friend that's also a UK fan discussing how important it is to retain Moreno. After Moreno's two-game performance in the NCAA tourney, I don't want him within earshot of this program. It was that bad. Looked like a big, clumsy, goofy, donkey. Just an absolute piss-poor display of basketball. Painter at Purdue was very complimentary of him after the exhibition; please, Coach Painter, pay Moreno top dollar to come to your school. Do us a big favor. Sorry, not sorry. Kids get paid big bucks they gotta deal with scrutiny. Moreno sucks.

 

[Catlogic1552]

No money? How will we ever squeeze those 3 million dollar ACL’s into the budget?

 

[blueblood2767]

I would be curious what the Duke, Arizona, Florida, Kansas, UConn, etc. NIL deals are for their players. 22 Mill for ours seems a little steep and I am not buying that UK spent that much.

 

[AllBall]

Maybe not but we'll have a serious coupon to use. Most of these players' values have dropped considerably.
Add to that the 4-5 mil from JQ and Lowe to purchase serviceable players and it's probably a wash.

Honestly, the next 45 days will determine if Pope has any chance at all.

 

[OliverSimmonsTwinBrother]

I have stopped my monthly 10 dollar donation to the K-fund. That's probably what Matt is talking about.

 

[kfwa]

so being a bit generous, the entry level to a sweet 16 is as least $5m if you moneyball the portal

$22m is almost double the ceilling.

if true (and I don't think it is, not even close) but that almost double what was necessary at the high end.

note: people are disputing those numbers saying that Nebraska is significantly less

 

[BetterThanYou]

I just don’t get the point of the Barnhart million.

how does he bring greater than 950K value to the program?

 

[UKGrad24]

Another scary notion is just how fooled many of us were on the abilities of some players. Two weeks ago I'm in a conversation with a friend that's also a UK fan discussing how important it is to retain Moreno. After Moreno's two-game performance in the NCAA tourney, I don't want him within earshot of this program. It was that bad. Looked like a big, clumsy, goofy, donkey. Just an absolute piss-poor display of basketball. Painter at Purdue was very complimentary of him after the exhibition; please, Coach Painter, pay Moreno top dollar to come to your school. Do us a big favor. Sorry, not sorry. Kids get paid big bucks they gotta deal with scrutiny. Moreno sucks.

That’s the other issue. Mark is not a good developer. JJ never got better. Moreno regressed. Aberdeen never improved. Same start to finish. You’ve got Chandler who was improving and it vanished. Yela maybe slight improvement? The entire team was basically the same. I guess they did get better from the 35 point blowouts early, but hell there’s nowhere to go but up when you’re literally an awful team getting blown out.

Oweh got better but when the ball is allowed to stick in your hand half of the possessions I wouldn’t expect you to get worse.

 

[UKGrad24]

I just don’t get the point of the Barnhart million.

how does he bring greater than 950K value to the program?

Barnhart has been nippling off this program for 24 years. He’s a good man. He like Kentucky even the knuckleheads. He like workin with young people. He enjoy the letterman. He too much love to stop now.

 

[KentuckyWildcats74]

I’ve said this a lot. I know he doesn’t have the support of some of them. I know if for a fact. I’ve said he won’t have as much money moving forward. You don’t even have to know anyone to see it. Mark is done at UK. And the way he acted toward some of those guys he needs was basically the end of him before he began. Some people just don’t want to believe it and think everyone is lying.

It’s incredible to me that anyone supports Mark Pope for another season. It’s absolutely mind boggling you want more of this guy. He’s a train wreck. Has no idea what he’s doing. And I be damned If like 2 out of 10 are incapable of understanding it.

Not only has NIL dried up, but so has the buyout money. Everything I am reading and hearing is there is no more big time spending after the Stoops buyout and everything else that has been spent. I am afraid we are in for at a bare minimum of a couple more years at least of Pope here and the bad thing is he is not even going to have a huge NIL budget to work with sounds like.

 

[KentuckyWildcats74]

Everyone keeps saying replace him now, but they forget his buyout is around 17 million and on top of that to get the quality of coach everyone wants here you would have a huge buyout for them plus a gigantic salary to lure them here even assuming you could lure them at all and beat the matching offer from where they are at.

 

[UKGrad24]

Everyone keeps saying replace him now, but they forget his buyout is around 17 million and on top of that to get the quality of coach everyone wants here you would have a huge buyout for them plus a gigantic salary to lure them here even assuming you could lure them at all and beat the matching offer from where they are at.

Well Mark has the option of settling out and helping keep his legacy in tact here. He made comments that he wouldn’t have to be told. Mitch should be fired, Mark would have came for a 5 million dollar buyout. Mitch is more concerned with “being loyal to him” than he is anything. He says it constantly. The guy is an absolute narcissistic self absorbed nut with a God complex. Then he “shucks” and “knuckleheads” you to death to give the appearance he’s this great man.

oh and look, he cares about the little sport. He cares about women sports. That’s not to create an illusion he cares about more than winning and is too great of a man to fire, no. That’s because he’s upstanding, and you don’t fire clean upstanding men. You promote them, give them raises, give them seats worth millions, because they don’t care about the money.

He literally created a new standard for high level AD’s so he could remain employed. “We might suck in the hard sports to win at, but if you fire me you don’t care about these little people. I help the university! I’ll focus on that not on sports!”

The guy used modern revenue streams and advocated against winning and spread it around to impress the BOT and the president who doesn’t care about basketball. Most AD’s don’t do that they focus on main sports. That was his job. The next AD needs to say up front his focus is on basketball and football and he’s going to put full concentration into it.

 

[KentuckyWildcats74]

Well Mark has the option of settling out and helping keep his legacy in tact here. He made comments that he wouldn’t have to be told. Mitch should be fired, Mark would have came for a 5 million dollar buyout. Mitch is more concerned with “being loyal to him” than he is anything. He says it constantly. The guy is an absolute narcissistic self absorbed nut with a God complex. Then he “shucks” and “knuckleheads” you to death to give the appearance he’s this great man.

oh and look, he cares about the little sport. He cares about women sports. That’s not to create an illusion he cares about more than winning and is too great of a man to fire, no. That’s because he’s upstanding, and you don’t fire clean upstanding men. You promote them, give them raises, give them seats worth millions, because they don’t care about the money.

He literally created a new standard for high level AD’s so he could remain employed. “We might suck in the hard sports to win at, but if you fire me you don’t care about these little people. I help the university! I’ll focus on that not on sports!”

The guy used modern revenue streams and advocated against winning and spread it around to impress the BOT and the president who doesn’t care about basketball. Most AD’s don’t do that they focus on main sports. That was his job. The next AD needs to say up front his focus is on basketball and football and he’s going to put full concentration into it.

Unless a lot of outside money flows in I think Football is going to get the benefit of the doubt internally because that is where the revenue stream is not. Football makes damn near all the money.

 

[CutNets]

That’s the other issue. Mark is not a good developer. JJ never got better. Moreno regressed. Aberdeen never improved. Same start to finish. You’ve got Chandler who was improving and it vanished. Yela maybe slight improvement? The entire team was basically the same. I guess they did get better from the 35 point blowouts early, but hell there’s nowhere to go but up when you’re literally an awful team getting blown out.

Oweh got better but when the ball is allowed to stick in your hand half of the possessions I wouldn’t expect you to get worse.

I can't remember a UK team looking slower, clumsier, less coordinated, and more out-of-sync than this team looked in their two tournament games. I'll give an example; watch us when we got a defensive rebound. Not a single player that got a rebound truly knew where to go with the ball to start the break the other way. Everything was lagging due to confusion and uncertainty. It was as if they were playing with brand new teammates.


This team wasn't cerebral, they weren't organized, and they were never confident. I mean I can't freaking believe how pathetically awful they looked. I don't think I'll every get over how putrid Moreno was in these two games. Just absolutely abysmal. Rolling around and flailing on the ground after a loose ball. Missing the easiest put-back dunk possible. Not securing a wide-open, unchallenged rebound at the end of regulation in the Santa Clara game where we needed the possession. I thought maybe he was braindead.


This team sucked. The players sucked, and the coaches sucked. They went 22-14. Just PATHETIC. They are an embarrassment and the coaches are an embarrassment. If any of them or their "people" read this board I want them to see that they're all a freaking joke. You guys suck. You're a freaking joke.

 

[JonathanW2]

I don’t want Pope fired because I don’t want Barney hiring the next coach.

That is an interesting, and perhaps good point.

 

[BMR1987]

For years we were told that Mitch was great at generating revenue for the university from the donor class and that was one of key roles of an AD and why we shouldn't get rid of him.

Now UK and the athletic department are going broke.

Which is it ?

 

[UKGrad24]

I can't remember a UK team looking slower, clumsier, less coordinated, and more out-of-sync than this team looked in their two tournament games. I'll give an example; watch us when we got a defensive rebound. Not a single player that got a rebound truly knew where to go with the ball to start the break the other way. Everything was lagging due to confusion and uncertainty. It was as if they were playing with brand new teammates.


This team wasn't cerebral, they weren't organized, and they were never confident. I mean I can't freaking believe how pathetically awful they looked. I don't think I'll every get over how putrid Moreno was in these two games. Just absolutely abysmal. Rolling around and flailing on the ground after a loose ball. Missing the easiest put-back dunk possible. Not securing a wide-open, unchallenged rebound at the end of regulation in the Santa Clara game where we needed the possession. I thought maybe he was braindead.


This team sucked. The players sucked, and the coaches sucked. They went 22-14. Just PATHETIC. They are an embarrassment and the coaches are an embarrassment. If any of them or their "people" read this board I want them to see that they're all a freaking joke. You guys suck. You're a freaking joke.

Yep. I have said I don’t think these guys liked each other at all and Mark had no control. They don’t live together now, there were major issues early on. I seriously doubt these guys were actually practicing everyday together. They were lost on the court and it showed week after week. Mark was just lucky that LSU and St. Mary miracle happened. Two major comebacks to Tennessee that I’m not sure how they happened. This was on the verge of being one of the worst records in history. To me it was the worst team I’ve ever seen in a UK uniform. No questions asked, I don’t care about the Covid season in this context because yea Calipari sucked and should have done something about it but Mark isn’t playing closed scrimmage games with few early practices. I’ve been a fan since 1992 at 7 years old. Worst team I’ve ever seen in a UK uniform.

 

[UKGrad24]

For years we were told that Mitch was great at generating revenue for the university from the donor class and that was one of key roles of an AD and why we shouldn't get rid of him.

Now UK and the athletic department are going broke.

Which is it ?

“Greatest AD is my lifetime”. I don’t say anything but there’s guys still posting that would say this. Battle anyone who said he didn’t hire Calipari. Constantly took up for him. I pay attention and man, they don’t even speak toward him at all lol.

He’s a con man.

 

[UKGrad24]

That is an interesting, and perhaps good point.

Barnhart cannot make the next hire. It would never be allowed he barely pulled it off this time. I doubt he’d even want to make the call.

 

[Bluesbrother]

I hope that’s a one off because with Capiluto saying “we need to cut back” no one is gonna want to come here to play or coach. But we sure do have money to pay ol Mitch a cushy *** advisor role!

THIS. Probably money paid to keep his mouth shut. Nothing make sense ... Audit the Athletic Dept.

 

[MegaBlue05]

The problem with Pope leaving is that HE has to buyout his contract if he leaves. I don't think ANY rational person is going to do that. The only option for him to leave is for it to be mutual and UK agree to change the terms of the departure. It has nothing to do with "integrity" in any way, shape or form.

The posters who mention honorably stepping down are full of it.

There is not one poster here who’d leave millions of dollars on the table by walking away from their dream job. Zero. Zilch. Anyone who says they would is a liar.

 

[cole@854]

Teams are doing great with much less.

This. Jones and other UK media brass are under the impression that you have to pay big to win. Completely false, especially at UK, and w/ the right HC. Recruiting at UK isn't rocket science....again, w/ the right HC.

 

[preacherfan]

The posters who mention honorably stepping down are full of it.

There is not one poster here who’d leave millions of dollars on the table by walking away from their dream job. Zero. Zilch. Anyone who says they would is a liar.

Agree 100%. This board is always calling players "quitters" and yet they think that Pope quitting is the right thing to do. You can't make this up! I prefer a coach who perserveres and fixes issues as opposed to one running away.

 

[Amonbundy76]

There shouldn't be any NIL is a total fraud. There's no motivation to win if you're being paid