Ask Mark Anything: Are J Batt’s contract incentives ‘over the top?’
This week’s “Ask Mark Anything” includes questions on new Kentucky athletics director J Batt’s performance incentives, UK football guarantee games, the Champions Blue LLC, potential limits on college athletes transferring, my favorite all-time Kentucky Wildcats basketball players — and the meaning of life.
Let’s get to it.
Question one comes from BC via email: “I want to be excited about the new era in Kentucky sports, but I think the contract incentives UK gave (new athletics director) J Batt are over the top. Two-hundred-and-fifty thousand dollars for ‘collaboration with the president’s cabinet.’ Are you kidding me? How do you even measure that?”
Mark’s reply: I asked Jay Blanton, the University of Kentucky’s Vice President for University Relations, Chief Communications Officer what metrics would be used to determine whether Batt will get the $250,000 “collaboration with the president’s cabinet” incentive.
“The president will set annual goals with respect to that incentive,” Blanton wrote in a text message. “But the idea is to ensure even greater alignment between campus and athletics as we are all one — for example, fostering even greater collaboration with philanthropy.”
Philosophically, I am not a fan of a large base salary coupled with ample performance incentives.
Over the full term of his six-year contract with Kentucky, Batt will earn an average of $2.975 million a year, which appears to make him among the five highest-paid ADs in college sports.
Yet his deal also includes nine different incentive clauses, all of which are six figures in scope.
In terms of incentivizing doing a good job, to paraphrase the fictional Don Draper, I would have thought “that’s what the salary is for.”
Question two comes from Tom Atkinson on Messenger: “How much is Kentucky paying Youngstown State and South Alabama to come to Lexington” to play football in 2026?
Mark’s reply: UK will pay FCS foe Youngstown State $575,000 for playing at Kroger Field on Sept. 5.
Kentucky will pay Sun Belt Conference member South Alabama $1.6 million for playing in Lexington on Sept. 26.
Question three comes from “The Goblin” on Bluesky: “Is the Lexington Herald-Leader able to obtain the financial records of Champions Blue via KY open records law or is (hiding such records from scrutiny) one of the reasons why the LLC was established?”
Mark’s reply: Champions Blue LLC, the limited liability corporation that the University of Kentucky has formed to run its athletics department, is an “affiliated corporation” of UK, and therefore its records are considered public and can be accessed under the commonwealth’s open records provisions.
Question four comes from Nathan Dunaway on Facebook: “Should there be some limits on the transfer portals?”
Mark’s reply: Personally, I am not in favor of limiting college athletes’ ability to transfer with immediate eligibility unless such restrictions are negotiated with the athletes via collective bargaining.
I do not find arguments persuasive by backers of the U.S. Senate’s “Protecting College Sports Act” that structural impediments due to current labor law make the concept of collective bargaining with college athletes unfeasible.
Question five comes from Gary Long on Facebook: “Who is your favorite UK basketball player?”
Mark’s reply: On the men’s side, my all-time favorite is Kenny Walker.
On the women’s side, it is A’dia Mathies.
Question six comes from Mike Gillespie on Facebook: “What is the meaning of life?”
Mark’s reply: A life derives meaning from: 1.) A cause larger than one’s self; 2.) The belief that, in one’s interactions with others, one should always try to do the kindest thing; 3.) And the ability to find joy in small things — like reading about sports.
