Calipari’s ‘lifetime contract’ came amid UCLA interest. What’s the status of that deal?

It’s easy to forget now — more than three years later — but the “lifetime contract” that John Calipari signed to continue his role as head coach at Kentucky came about amid intense interest from UCLA, the Wildcats’ opponent Saturday night.

According to reports at the time, the Bruins approached UK’s Hall of Fame basketball coach about the vacancy created when they parted ways with Steve Alford midway through the 2018-19 season. Per the Los Angeles Times, the talks became so serious that UCLA agreed to Calipari’s specific requests regarding a hefty salary pool for assistant coaches, new basketball staff positions, the use of a private plane, and other amenities, and that the school’s officials had already reached out to donors to help fund those demands.

The ultimate result was the most predictable one. Calipari, of course, decided to stay at Kentucky, and his new extension — popularly termed a “lifetime contract” at the time — was announced the day after the Wildcats lost to Auburn in the regional finals of the 2019 NCAA Tournament.

“There is no other place I want to be,” Calipari said.

At that point, the Wildcats had come within a possession of advancing to the Final Four in two of the previous three seasons. Calipari’s earlier tenure at Kentucky featured four trips to the Final Four over a five-year period — only John Wooden and Mike Krzyzewski had ever done that — plus a magical debut season that ended in the 2010 Elite Eight, and a national championship in 2012.

Calipari had a 305-71 record through 10 seasons and a winning percentage comparable to Adolph Rupp’s over the same span to begin a UK coaching career.

“One of the truly unique things about Kentucky men’s basketball is its legacy of head coaches who have made their own lasting mark on this program. John is a perfect illustration of that,” UK AD Mitch Barnhart said at the time. “He has added a special chapter to the greatest tradition in college basketball, and it’s a chapter we want him to continue writing until the end of his coaching career. We are pleased to announce a new contract that will enable him to do exactly that.”

The 10-year deal officially signed later that spring was worth a total of $86 million, with compensation of $8 million per year for the next two seasons, $8.5 million from the 2021-22 through the 2024-25 seasons, and $9 million for the final four seasons of the agreement, which extended through the 2028-29 campaign.

Calipari’s previous contract was set to expire after the 2023-24 season and paid him $8 million per year.

“Most years that I’ve been coaching, there have been opportunities for me to do stuff,” he said when asked about the UCLA negotiations Thursday. “And, in most cases, if they’re people I know, I’ll talk to ’em and spend time, because the other side of it is — if it’s not me, maybe I can help somebody.

“But, no, I’m enjoying what I’m doing. And trying to get a team ready for a game like this (against UCLA) gets my juices flowing.”

Calipari’s initial success with the Wildcats made him a constant subject of NBA coaching rumors, and he was linked at various times to openings (or expected openings) with the Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks, Cleveland Cavaliers, among several other pro franchises. The UCLA interest was a college outlier in that rumor mill, and Calipari made clear he knew the uniqueness of UK basketball.

“Being at Kentucky is like no other,” he said then. “It’s hard. But you know what? You never have to sell a ticket. You never have to create enthusiasm. You never have to get people engaged in your program. And it really matters to people.”

However far those UCLA talks truly progressed, the dominant thinking by that time was that Calipari was going to finish his coaching career in Lexington.

“I felt that was going to happen anyway,” ESPN’s Jay Bilas told the Herald-Leader that spring. “But it’s nice of UCLA to make him all that money.”

How long will Calipari stay?

Obviously, the results through the first three seasons of that 10-year deal have not been as spectacular as anyone involved hoped they would be.

Kentucky is still searching for its first Final Four since 2015, and the Wildcats haven’t actually won an NCAA Tournament game since three days before the “lifetime contract” was announced. The COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the 2020 tournament, where the Cats would have been considered a top team. Then came the disastrous 2020-21 season, when a young UK team finished with a 9-16 record amid pandemic restrictions and limited practice time. Most recently: the Cats’ shocking loss to Saint Peter’s in the 2022 tourney.

(UCLA ultimately hired Mick Cronin, who has led the Bruins to a Final Four and Sweet 16 in the two NCAA Tournaments since, with ex-UK player Johnny Juzang the leading scorer on both squads).

Two of those three Kentucky seasons in the meantime have featured plenty of winning basketball in the regular season, but results around here are measured by what happens in March, and the lack of victories there have led to consternation among a vocal segment of the Kentucky fan base.

Now in his 14th season, Calipari’s future has also increasingly been the subject of speculation, often a popular topic — no matter who the UK coach is or what the circumstances are — but even more so now due to the Hall of Famer’s unique contract.

To be clear: Calipari will be coaching at Kentucky for the foreseeable future, if he wants to be, per the terms of that deal. His buyout is the biggest in college basketball, by far, and stipulates that UK would pay him 75 percent of all remaining compensation if the Cats were to let him go without cause. (That number, after this season, would be about $40 million, for reference’s sake.)

The most interesting part of Calipari’s contract is the so-called “ambassador” clause, which would allow him to step down as head coach but remain an employee of the athletics department — with a salary of $950,000 — and a loosely defined role of assisting the university in fundraising, promoting the basketball team and other UK sports programs.

Calipari can trigger that clause following the 2023-24 season, and it’s been rumored for years that he might just do it. Clever college basketball observers have pointed out that seemingly surefire one-and-done guard DJ Wagner — son of Dajuan Wagner, who was Calipari’s first big recruit at Memphis — would be ending his lone college season then, giving the Hall of Fame coach an opportunity at a fitting family bookend to his own tenure, with an expected run at another national title as his swan song.

That would be quite a tidy storybook ending, but it remains to be seen how practical that theory will be. Calipari, who turns 64 years old in February, has implied recently that he has no plans to step away from coaching anytime soon and has further stated that it would be especially tough for anyone to trade in $9 million for $950,000 if they still have the desire to compete at the highest level. Calipari has also recently pointed out that he’s actively recruiting the best players in the 2024 class, another sign that he has no plans to call it quits anytime soon.

Calipari’s contract

If Calipari does stay put for a few more years, it will be interesting to see if his current contract is amended yet again, especially if the Cats can make a deep run in the 2023 NCAA Tournament.

Last month, Mitch Barnhart extended a new contract to UK football coach Mark Stoops, who will make $9 million per year starting next season. That number is higher than Calipari’s current salary — meaning the Kentucky football coach would make more than the UK men’s basketball coach — a previously unthinkable occurrence at a place Calipari so infamously described as a “basketball school” this past offseason.

Stoops’ new deal is set to last through the 2030 football season. He would have made $7 million in 2023 under his old deal, which did include salary steps but never would’ve matched or exceeded Calipari’s compensation. Calipari’s contract won’t hit the $9 million mark until the 2025-26 season.

That might be a topic of conversation in the coming months, if it isn’t already.

Calipari has also been surpassed in salary by Kansas Coach Bill Self, who landed a new deal last year — despite an open investigation into possible NCAA violations — and that agreement put Self above Calipari on the USA Today’s annual list of coaching salaries. The publication releases those rankings during March Madness every year, and the most recent rundown had Self at No. 1 with a little more than $10 million, Calipari next, and Michigan State’s Tom Izzo at No. 3, about $250,000 less than the Kentucky coach.

Self also won the national title in 2022, his second NCAA crown, it should be noted. It’s also worth pointing out that salaries for coaches at private universities are more difficult to confirm, making Mike Krzyzewski’s compensation package a relative mystery for much of his career. Tax returns for 2020 had Coach K at $13.7 million that year.

Krzyzewski, who won five national titles at Duke, retired following the 2021-22 season.

Calipari’s contract at Kentucky has been amended six times since he first agreed to it in 2009. The first four changes came after each season in which he led the Wildcats to a Final Four appearance (2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015). The next one came in 2017, a few days before UK’s Elite Eight loss to North Carolina. And then the final change in 2019, the “lifetime contract” amid those UCLA discussions.

That makes this the longest stretch in Calipari’s 14 years at Kentucky that he’s been working off the same contract. He certainly sounds like a coach with no plans to step away.

“The parts of coaching, the teaching — seeing guys get better. Seeing people improve their game and elevate themselves — it’s the best part of what we do,” Calipari said Thursday. “And then coming into environments like we come into, wherever we’re playing. Being here — I’m blessed to coach at Kentucky. I get to coach the best players and be with the best fans and be in sold-out arenas and play all over the world in front of our fans. …

“I’ve having a ball with it.”

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