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Paying $33 million to buy out a basketball coach would be wrong thing for Kentucky to do

If by the time you read this Kentucky has agreed to pay $33 million to buy out the contract of head basketball coach John Calipari, it will have been a mistake.

It won’t be a mistake because Calipari has met the high expectations of his administration and fan base. He hasn’t. It will be a mistake because paying $33 million to buy out a college basketball coach is a ridiculous thing to do.

It’s why that ridiculous dollar figure was placed in Calipari’s so-called “lifetime contract” in the first place. It was not because UK believed it one day would pay $33 million to part ways with its coach. The buyout was an article of faith that the school believed in its coach enough to pledge a buyout amount no institution in its right mind would pay. It’s true UK wouldn’t really be paying the $33 million. Supporters and boosters would be supplying president Eli Capilouto and athletics director Mitch Barnhart the funds to fire the head basketball coach after the Wildcats’ 80-76 loss to Oakland in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday in Pittsburgh, the fourth straight season in which UK failed to reach the second weekend of the tournament. No matter the source, firing Calipari would be a bad look for a school that works tirelessly to raise money to improve itself as an academic institution and whose tuition rates continue to rise, not to mention for a state that by any economic measure is far from wealthy.