Pope’s BYU Buyout

[SkyPrince1]

So Mitch isn't directly responsible for the 11+ million we paid for a new coach? Maybe your the one that doesn't comprehend this.

I think we all understand the buyout was apart of Pope's BYU contract, we all follow sports here.

It's the fact that we paid 6 million to another school and 5 million plus on top of that for a guy at Pope's level. This is just the latest example of Mitch's ineptitude. He paid 2.5 million to fire Joker, signed Cal to a lifetime contract, the mess we have with Stoops.

Tell us how you would have done it.

 

[TucsonCat]

This thread is shockingly stupid. There were probably dozens of other threads discussing Cals or Stoops contracts. How many years were left. Money. Buyouts. Mitch didn't believe in them.

I guess it explains why every now and then someone would write "All I know is they gotta get rid of him." I never took it that literally.

 

[bigblueinsanity]

I genuinely never knew his buyout was 6 mil.

Hardly anyone did apparently. I know I didn't. I know i never saw it anywhere before now. No wonder, its an embarrassing amount to pay on top of the other stuff and Mitch no doubt preferred it quiet.

Again i love Pope but we massively overpaid for a poor resume considering the guy would've crawled here.

 

[qwesley]

That's the type of contract you get when you're at the top of the food chain of coaches
Basketball and Football.
It's not uncommon as all the upper echelon coaches have this in their contracts.

What is Stoops buyout if another team hires him? Barnhart lets the agents write the contracts.

 

[SkyPrince1]

What is Stoops buyout if another team hires him? Barnhart lets the agents write the contracts.

Idk about Stoops. He may have a buyout, I can't remember if it was said he would owe the school or not when everyone thought he was gone to aTm.
I'm mean he's not Kirby and is overpaid considering his on field production.

 

[SkyPrince1]

Hardly anyone did apparently. I know I didn't. I know i never saw it anywhere before now. No wonder, its an embarrassing amount to pay on top of the other stuff and Mitch no doubt preferred it quiet.

Again i love Pope but we massively overpaid for a poor resume considering the guy would've crawled here.

Pope didn't have the clout to NOT have a buyout clause in his BYU contract.
Guarantee you Cal doesn't have one at Arkansas.
I'd say most SEC coaches have some sort of buyout clause if another school wanted to hire them .
Pearl, Oats and Barnes could be the exceptions also.

 

[rick64]

Thank you Arkansas for saving the UK athletic dept $32M. 🙏

 

[oldsports_]

Best money spent. It will pay dividends for years to come.

 

[bthaunert]

Pope didn't have the clout to NOT have a buyout clause in his BYU contract.
Guarantee you Cal doesn't have one at Arkansas.
I'd say most SEC coaches have some sort of buyout clause if another school wanted to hire them .
Pearl, Oats and Barnes could be the exceptions also.

Cal has one at Arkansas. It's also $6 million that he would need to pay Arkansas if he left for another job.

 

[bthaunert]

What is Stoops buyout if another team hires him? Barnhart lets the agents write the contracts.

His started at $4.5 million in 2023 and goes down by $500.00/year

 

[bigblueinsanity]

Pope didn't have the clout to NOT have a buyout clause in his BYU contract.
Guarantee you Cal doesn't have one at Arkansas.
I'd say most SEC coaches have some sort of buyout clause if another school wanted to hire them .
Pearl, Oats and Barnes could be the exceptions also.

Of course Pope didn't have the leverage. Guess BYU has an AD that isnt an incompetent negotiator.

Pope also didn't have the leverage when we hired him either, but didn't stop us from paying him bank and guaranteeing much of it.

For comparison on only buyout, iirc Pope's UK contract has a rapidly reducing buyout that basically goes away if Mitch isn't the AD.

The UK deal is an insane contract for anyone with that resume.

 

[bthaunert]

Hardly anyone did apparently. I know I didn't. I know i never saw it anywhere before now. No wonder, its an embarrassing amount to pay on top of the other stuff and Mitch no doubt preferred it quiet.

Again i love Pope but we massively overpaid for a poor resume considering the guy would've crawled here.

I agree with your last sentence. I believe he's in the top 7 of highest paid college basketball coaches. He's at $5 million in his first year. There are a couple interesting caveats in his contract:

1. The buyout the university pays him if he's fired without cause is paid out monthly over the life of his contract. That's a change from Cal that needed to be made.
2. Pope would owe UK 33% of hie remaining salary if he leaves UK for another job if Mitch is still the AD and 20% if Mitch is not the AD.

I'm not sure what Pope made at BYU as it's private so the info isn't out there. It's reported that their new coach is making $4.3 million per year. If I could guess, I'd say Pope was probably around $2.5 give or take. I think $4 million annually would have probably been a fair salary for Pope. Maybe his worth as a coach is $3.5 million, but there has to be a bump for the expectations of being the coach at UK imo.

 

[Eagles_Ball]

For getting Pope?

TBD...but certainly trending not in that direction.

Or for Cal's contract?

Yes

For Stoops' contract as well.

 

[Eagles_Ball]

Cal did not violate his contact. That’s a myth for this board.

Like many others.

While it wasn't presented that way publicly...Do you think he didn't discuss the Arkansas job with Arkansas representatives while still employed by UK?

This has always been my take on the entire thing. He did have those discussions. With whom and whether or not they were "official" discussions are up for debate. Mitch got wind of it and set the UK legal team into motion. At some point (dog walk in the stroller) Cal had buyer's remorse on leaving for Arky. Mitch and UK told him they were going to sue for breach of contract. Cal knew he was cooked. So he took the Arky $$$ and that was that. So if we're splitting hairs, no there was no breach of contract...but if we're not splitting hairs and calling it what it was...it seems like a hard argument to make otherwise.

 

[SkyPrince1]

Of course Pope didn't have the leverage. Guess BYU has an AD that isnt an incompetent negotiator.

Pope also didn't have the leverage when we hired him either, but didn't stop us from paying him bank and guaranteeing much of it.

For comparison on only buyout, iirc Pope's UK contract has a rapidly reducing buyout that basically goes away if Mitch isn't the AD.

The UK deal is an insane contract for anyone with that resume.

If as an AD you hire a guy and then try to low ball him on a contract, doesn't that say " I really wanted someone else but had to settle for you so I want to get you at a bargain"
I don't think that's the way an AD and coach want to start a relationship.
The AD needs to be all in until he has a reason not to be.
If you add the buyout amount to Mark's total contract, that total combined amount still wouldn't have been enough to hire a top of the food chain coach.
So if you can't have Self, Izzo, Hurley, Drew or Oats, who else that would have been a better hire could we have got even with the combined money?

 

[UKat51]

So Mitch isn't directly responsible for the 11+ million we paid for a new coach? Maybe your the one that doesn't comprehend this.

I think we all understand the buyout was apart of Pope's BYU contract, we all follow sports here.

It's the fact that we paid 6 million to another school and 5 million plus on top of that for a guy at Pope's level. This is just the latest example of Mitch's ineptitude. He paid 2.5 million to fire Joker, signed Cal to a lifetime contract, the mess we have with Stoops.

Pope will prove to be worth every penny

 

[Cat06]

For getting Pope? Or for Cal's contract?

His contracts, period. Coaches agents must salivate when they negotiate with him.

 

[bigblueinsanity]

I agree with your last sentence. I believe he's in the top 7 of highest paid college basketball coaches. He's at $5 million in his first year. There are a couple interesting caveats in his contract:

1. The buyout the university pays him if he's fired without cause is paid out monthly over the life of his contract. That's a change from Cal that needed to be made.
2. Pope would owe UK 33% of hie remaining salary if he leaves UK for another job if Mitch is still the AD and 20% if Mitch is not the AD.

I'm not sure what Pope made at BYU as it's private so the info isn't out there. It's reported that their new coach is making $4.3 million per year. If I could guess, I'd say Pope was probably around $2.5 give or take. I think $4 million annually would have probably been a fair salary for Pope. Maybe his worth as a coach is $3.5 million, but there has to be a bump for the expectations of being the coach at UK imo.

If as an AD you hire a guy and then try to low ball him on a contract, doesn't that say " I really wanted someone else but had to settle for you so I want to get you at a bargain"
I don't think that's the way an AD and coach want to start a relationship.
The AD needs to be all in until he has a reason not to be.
If you add the buyout amount to Mark's total contract, that total combined amount still wouldn't have been enough to hire a top of the food chain coach.
So if you can't have Self, Izzo, Hurley, Drew or Oats, who else that would have been a better hire could we have got even with the combined money?

His contracts, period. Coaches agents must salivate when they negotiate with him.

This. If this was a one off, then you could give some grace but Mitch has over paid and under negotiated his entire time at uk.

Interestingly enough, Mitch's most savvy dealing was his first when he refused to overpay guy Morris and let him go to Baylor where he flopped.