How much is Mark Pope making this season? What about Calipari? Contract details for both.

Of all the storylines set to swirl around Saturday night’s SEC basketball showdown between No. 12 Kentucky and Arkansas in Rupp Arena, the financial backstory of the game is one of the most intriguing.

Last offseason’s seismic coaching shakeup — which saw John Calipari leave UK after 15 seasons to take the head coaching job at Arkansas, leading Kentucky to hire ex-Cat Mark Pope as his replacement in Lexington — feels like ancient history already.

Pope and the Wildcats harbor legitimate Final Four hopes this season, and own a 15-5 overall record and a 4-3 mark in SEC play. After Tuesday’s surprising road triumph at No. 8 Tennessee, UK now has six wins this season against schools that were ranked in the top 15 of the AP poll at the time of the game.

Calipari’s first season in Fayetteville has been a disaster so far. The Hogs are 12-8 overall, 1-6 in SEC games and recently lost star freshman guard Boogie Fland — a former UK signee — for the season due to a hand surgery.

Kentucky’s former coach and Kentucky’s current program are on opposite trajectories at the moment.

Which brings us back to the money.

When Calipari left Kentucky last spring, he also left a lot of money on the table in Lexington.

If UK had parted ways with Calipari, the school would have owed him $33.4 million, which would have been 75% of the remaining salary on the 10-year contract extension Calipari signed with UK in 2019. But since Calipari left on his own, Kentucky paid him nothing on the way out.

Now, Calipari is on a lucrative head coaching contract with the Razorbacks.

And while Pope — who previously spent nine combined seasons as the head coach at Utah Valley and BYU — isn’t making Calipari-type money at Kentucky, he’s still being very well compensated for coaching his alma mater.

Ahead of Saturday’s much-anticipated matchup between the Cats and Hogs, it’s worth revisiting the coaching contracts that Calipari has at Arkansas and Pope has at Kentucky.

John Calipari has a five-year coaching contract at Arkansas

Last April, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette published the contract details for Calipari at Arkansas. Coach Cal is to be paid a base salary of $7 million per year to serve as the Arkansas head men’s basketball coach.

Calipari signed a five-year contract that is set to run through the 2028-29 season.

Calipari will make more than just that base salary, though. The contract also included a $1 million signing bonus for Calipari, and it also calls for Calipari to be paid retention bonuses of $500,000 each year.

There are also several incentives in Calipari’s contract with the Razorbacks that could be triggered each year by on-court performance.

This includes a $50,000 bonus each year if Arkansas makes the NCAA Tournament, up to $500,000 for winning a national championship. The Razorbacks won the 1994 NCAA Tournament and finished as the national runner-up in 1995.

Notably, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported Calipari’s contract also includes a no-compete clause that prohibits the 65-year-old Calipari from accepting another job in the SEC.

Obviously, it’s early in Calipari’s Arkansas tenure. While results haven’t gone the Razorbacks’ way this season, there’s no immediate indication that either Calipari or the school is already looking to go in a different direction.

To this point, the Hogs have a top-five high school recruiting class coming in later this year, headlined by five-star guards Darius Acuff Jr. and Meleek Thomas.

But, Calipari’s contract with Arkansas does contain several options if either party does want to part ways.

Calipari’s deal includes a buyout clause that would make Arkansas pay 75% of his remaining base salary if he is fired for convenience, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Additionally, Calipari would owe the school $6 million if he were to buy out his contract and accept another job.

By the end of his Kentucky tenure, Calipari was receiving an annual compensation of $8.5 million per year. Calipari reworked his contract with UK six different times during his 15-season run at the school, most recently in March 2019. That final contract extension between Calipari and UK was popularly termed a “lifetime contract.”

Calipari still had five years and $44.5 million remaining on his contract with UK when he left Lexington.

What is Mark Pope’s contract situation at UK?

Pope’s first contract at Kentucky was officially signed by all required parties last May.

Like Calipari, Pope is on a five-year deal. Pope’s entire five-year contract is worth $27.5 million, which averages out to $5.5 million per year over the life of the contract.

For the 2024-25 season, Pope is receiving $5 million. His annual salary will increase by $250,000 each year through the end of the contract, which runs through the 2028-29 season.

If the 52-year-old Pope guides Kentucky to the Sweet 16, then Pope’s deal will be automatically extended by an additional season, with $250,000 added to his salary for each extra year as long as there are no more than five seasons remaining on the contract at that time.

UK last reached the Sweet 16 of March Madness in 2019.

There are several on-court incentives on the table in Pope’s first Kentucky contract. The UK coach would get $100,000 for winning an SEC regular-season championship and $50,000 if Kentucky wins the SEC Tournament.

The Cats last won an SEC regular-season championship in 2020 and last won the SEC Tournament in 2018.

Pope would also be financially rewarded if the Wildcats have success in the NCAA Tournament. Pope would earn $50,000 for reaching the Sweet 16, $100,000 for reaching the Elite Eight, $250,000 for reaching the Final Four and $500,000 for winning the national championship.

That bonus is not cumulative for each round.

Options also exist in Pope’s contract should either the coach or school want to part ways.

If Pope is fired without cause before the end of the contract, he will be owed 75% of his remaining compensation.

Should Pope want to opt out of his coaching contract, the amount of money he would owe the school would depend on the status of Kentucky athletics director Mitch Barnhart.

If Barnhart is still the Kentucky AD, then Pope would owe the school 33% of his remaining contract. If Barnhart isn’t the UK AD, then Pope would only owe 20% of his remaining contract.

Barnhart’s current contract runs through the 2027-28 school year.

This story was originally published January 29, 2025 at 4:53 PM.

Cameron Drummond

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-242-5257

Cameron Drummond works as a sports reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader with a focus on Kentucky men’s basketball recruiting and the UK men’s basketball team, horse racing, soccer and other sports in Central Kentucky. Drummond is a second-generation American who was born and raised in Texas, before graduating from Indiana University. He is a fluent Spanish speaker who previously worked as a community news reporter in Austin, Texas. Support my work with a digital subscription