I'll go further than that. I'll bet you a six month ban that Pope will be gone by May 15th of 2028. That lines up with the Nate Oats' contract where it would cost UK nothing to sign him nothing in terms of paying Alabama a buyout in April of 2028. They would also only have to pay Pope two years worth of a buy out. I know the new AD has almost definitely already been weighing it after the Stokes/Collins/Kusturica/Wright/Mitchell embarrassments of the last 9 months or so.
So I'll bet you a six month self-imposed ban that Mark Pope will not be the UK coach any longer than May of 2028.
If you're so confident that he is the man for the job, wouldn't you jump at this opportunity to get rid of me? Wouldn't you be confident that he'll be here long term?
Also on a side note, I'll throw in an extra two months on my end if I'm wrong.
I could see 2027 being the year they would let Pope go if the buyouts lined up, but it might be a bridge too far to get rid of him next year since it would cost $12 million to buy out Oats from Bama and another $15-20 million to get rid of Pope.
If UK waits the extra year, it costs us around $8-12 million instead of a total of $27-32 million. That's quite a bit of difference for one year.