A Coach Is Too Expensive To Fire? Mark Stoops’ $38 Million Buyout Has Kentucky Stuck

Plenty of college football programs find themselves in a tricky spot as October arrives, especially when it comes to how much they can afford to pay a coach to leave if the results aren’t showing on the field. 

But what happens when a school decides to move way too fast to lock up a coach that could end up plummeting? This is the current dilemma for Kentucky and head coach Mark Stoops, who signed a lucrative deal in 2022 that's come back to bite the Wildcats financially. 

In 2022, Kentucky gave Stoops a raise to $9 million per year and extended his deal, making him one of the highest-paid coaches in the country. Coming off a 10–3 season — his second in four years — and with whispers that other programs were interested, the move wasn’t shocking at the time. 

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Looking back, I would imagine some within the Kentucky athletic department are having buyers' remorse given the current situation, just a few years after the deal was signed. 

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But, even with the current situation in Lexington, there's only so much Mark Stoops can do right now in this era of college athletics. NIL will only go so far when it comes to attracting talent, while we are seeing high school athletes deciding to attend schools right now that Kentucky would land in the past. 

And, the transfer portal can obviously work against you. It also doesn't help that an offensive scheme is changing on what feels like a yearly basis. 

Meanwhile, a few hours south of Lexington, we are witnessing some type of revival for the Vanderbilt football program, who have seemingly passed Kentucky in the SEC pecking order. 

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After Kentucky’s 35–13 loss to South Carolina last weekend, the Wildcats have now played 11 straight games against Power Conference opponents without scoring more than two offensive touchdowns in a game. 

Next up? A trip to Athens to face an agitated Georgia Bulldogs team that is coming off a loss to Alabama. 

Halfway through Mark Stoops’ 13th season, apathy has taken hold of Big Blue Nation. By mid-September, fans were already turning their attention away from football and toward the promise of basketball season.

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At this moment, thanks to a 2-2 record and coming off a humiliating loss to South Carolina, folks around the program are wondering how much longer Stoops will actually have to turn this thing around. 

The answer? As long as he wants, unless Kentucky can come up with the $38 million that it would owe Stoops within 60 days of his firing. Heck, if I'm the Kentucky head coach, I would make the administration walk into my office and hand me the walking papers, knowing a massive check would follow in the next two months. 

Who gives out a contract like that with a buyout provision that guarantees the entire amount within a short time period? Probably one that thinks the program was headed in the right direction, under a coach who had passed Bear Bryant on the all-time wins list at Kentucky. 

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But looking back on the day he agreed to an extension, Stoops had Kentucky by the horns, knowing the only way he wouldn't be paid his buyout was if he walked away for another job. 

Much like what John Calipari did, Kentucky boosters might be praying every night that their head coach would get a job offer that was enticing enough for him to forgo the buyout and leave on his own. 

Thanks to Coach Cal leaving for Arkansas, it saved Kentucky from having to pay him over $30 million to leave.  

Unfortunately for the accounting department, Stoops isn't Calipari. There was a chance we wouldn't be talking about this a few years ago, when Texas A&M had all but officially announced the hiring of Mark Stoops, only for them to back out at the last second and hire Mike Elko, while the Kentucky head coach was planning a flight to College Station. 

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Now, a few years later, the ‘Cats are stuck, almost as if they are playing a game of ‘chicken.'

The bad news for Kentucky is that I don't expect Stoops to blink, and I sure don't expect him to leave all of that money on the table. 

If your boss told you that he wanted to make some major changes and move in a different direction, you wouldn't leave without getting what you're owed. Which is exactly how this is going to play out in Lexington. 

As the Wildcats prepare to play Georgia, Texas, Tennessee and Auburn over the next month, the school might have a tough choice to make. 

Do they dip into the coffers to pay off Stoops and go find a new head coach? Or, do they just pray that he can somehow turn things around enough at Kentucky that they can sell the future to donors and fans?

Let this be a lesson to athletic programs across the country when it comes to contract buyouts. 

Always leave yourself an out, especially with that much money on the line. 

Let me know what you think. Email me at Trey.Wallace@OutKick.com