Kentucky’s next men’s basketball coach won’t come cheap. How much will it cost the Cats?

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With John Calipari gone — off to Arkansas after 15 seasons as the men’s basketball coach at the University of Kentucky — there’s a $44.5 million hole in the UK Athletics budget over the next five years.

How will athletics director Mitch Barnhart and the other decision-makers at the university fill it? While it largely depends on who the Wildcats hire to replace Calipari, it should be expected that the Hall of Famer’s replacement won’t come cheap. That’s the price of doing business at the highest level of college basketball, and Barnhart and company will undoubtedly be swinging for the fences in their search to find Kentucky’s next coach.

The good financial news for UK is that Calipari left on his own. Before his departure, things had obviously soured between the 65-year-old coach and his employer, but a massive contract with an untenable exit plan for the university left no wiggle room for the future.

If UK had decided to part ways with Calipari this offseason, it would have owed him $33.4 million. While there were plenty of calls from a vocal and fed-up segment of the fan base — as well as a brief rally from some boosters behind the scenes — to do just that, there was never any indication that Barnhart would have seriously considered spending that much money (no matter the source) to pay Calipari to not coach basketball at Kentucky.

When Calipari left for Arkansas — he’ll be introduced as the school’s new head coach Wednesday night — the decision was made for him. And it makes the next one a lot easier.

If UK had paid the full buyout, finances probably would have been a major consideration in who the Cats could realistically target. Obviously, money is always a consideration, but the university is now off the hook for the remainder of Calipari’s contract, which was the second-highest in the sport.

So how much money is his replacement likely to make?

Calipari signed a 10-year extension following the 2018-19 season that had five years and $44.5 million remaining on it before his departure. He was due to make $8.5 million during the 2024-25 season and $9 million over each of the next four years.

Per the terms of the contract, only $400,000 of that total is considered base salary paid by UK Athletics, which is a self-sufficient operation of the university. The remainder is paid through various media and endorsement rights deals brokered between the UK athletics department and outside entities. The contracts of other high-profile head coaches such as Mark Stoops (football), Kenny Brooks (women’s basketball) and Nick Mingione (baseball) are structured in the same way.

Salary for Kentucky’s next coach

It’s expected that the next men’s basketball coach at Kentucky will have the same salary structure, and it won’t be a surprise if that hire’s annual income nears Calipari’s total. Or possibly even exceeds it.

According to this year’s USA Today database of the highest-paid coaches in college basketball, only Bill Self (with a salary of $9.4 million, not counting bonuses) trumps Calipari’s income for the current school year.

There’s a relatively wide margin between Calipari and the next coaches on the list (again, not counting bonuses): Michigan State’s Tom Izzo ($5.77 million), Tennessee’s Rick Barnes ($5.7 million) and Auburn’s Bruce Pearl ($5.68 million).

Three coaches who have been viewed as top candidates to replace Calipari come in right after that group, with Baylor’s Scott Drew listed at $5.13 million, UConn’s Dan Hurley at $5 million and Alabama’s Nate Oats, who issued a statement Monday night seemingly taking himself out of the running for the Kentucky job, at $4.51 million.

In each case, that’s not much more than half of what Calipari was due to make over the next five seasons. It’s also not an accurate portrayal of the reality of those coaches’ situations.

All three of those coaches have circumstances surrounding their employment that would make them much pricier to pry away from their current schools.

Drew — long viewed as Barnhart’s top choice — was pursued by Louisville for its coaching vacancy last month, and he made it clear that he planned to stay put at Baylor amid reports that the private university was prepared to restructure his deal to include additional years and a substantial raise. Drew, who led Baylor to the 2021 national title, also has a $4.5 million buyout, which is typically paid by the hiring school. (So UK would be responsible for that, too.)

Hurley signed a six-year, $32.1 million extension after leading UConn to the national championship last season. That deal would top out at $5.8 million for the 2028-29 season, but the Huskies’ continued success this season — they won back-to-back national titles Monday night, the first program to do so in 17 years — will put Hurley in an advantageous position to renegotiate for even more money moving forward. He also has a $7.5 million buyout this offseason.

Oats, who had emerged as a favorite among a vocal segment of the UK fan base, agreed to a contract extension last month that will pay him $5 million next season with annual raises that culminate in a $7.55 million salary for the 2029-30 season, the final year on the current deal. Oats also has a whopping $18 million buyout. And his extension was agreed to before he led Alabama to its first appearance in the Final Four in program history.

In all three cases, these coaches would almost certainly be able to negotiate even better contracts if a school like Kentucky came calling. And UK would surely have to pay more than any prospective new deals with their current schools to lure any of these coaches away from an incredibly secure job situation to coach in the win-now-or-else fishbowl in Lexington.

So — for any of these coaches — Kentucky would have to pony up to near-Calipari standards to make a deal.

The Herald-Leader was told Tuesday night that there had already been serious talks between UK officials and Drew, while Hurley also remains an attractive target, despite his comments immediately following Monday’s NCAA title victory that indicated he was staying put at UConn. As of Tuesday night, a pursuit of Oats seemed less likely than it might have been 24 hours earlier.

While landing any of these three coaches would certainly be financially doable, given UK’s current position, hiring from this trio would come with a hefty price tag, on top of the additional NIL and facilities promises — money that would probably come largely from wealthy boosters — that would surely have to be made to bring any of them to Kentucky.

Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan, who won back-to-back NCAA titles with Florida before jumping to the NBA, would probably command something close to Calipari’s salary to return to college. His last reported salary with Chicago was $6 million per year, but he has at least a week and a half left to go in his NBA season, and the Herald-Leader was told this week that he’s unlikely to consider any potential offer from UK as long as the Bulls are still playing.

Others that might be further down Kentucky’s list of candidates could be hired for lesser annual pay, but even some of those coaches would have large buyouts attached to their names.

For instance, Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd currently has a buyout of $12 million, while Iowa State’s T.J. Otzelberger’s buyout is reported to be $17 million this offseason.

With a five-year deal likely to be the minimum for Kentucky’s next coach, whatever happens next will come at a massive cost. For the right fit, UK will be prepared to pay it.

Calipari’s recruiting success at UK was unmatched. The game changed, but that never did.

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