How much can Louisville's Pat Kelsey, Kentucky's Mark Pope earn in postseason bonuses?

Pat Kelsey and Mark Pope are about to embark on their first postseasons as head coaches of Louisville and Kentucky basketball. Each stands to pad their paychecks with big wins.

The Courier Journal analyzed the value of both coaches' contracts and performance incentives ahead of their respective conference tournaments and March Madness. The maximum bonus Kelsey could earn is $675,000, while Pope's bonuses max out at $700,000.

Before any bonus basketball, Kelsey — whose current contract spans March 2024 to March 2029 — is set to make $2.35 million this season. He has a base salary of $2.3 million and a $50,000 signing bonus. Louisville also pays for a family membership at the University of Louisville Golf Club, a $1,000 per month automobile stipend, a $15,000,000 life insurance policy and travel expenses for up to four of Kelsey’s family members (spouse, children or parents) to games played outside the city.

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For winning ACC Coach of the Year, Kelsey earned a $25,000 bonus. He also secured a $50,000 bonus and automatic one-year extension (with same annual base salary unless otherwise negotiated) for leading U of L to its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2019.

Kelsey gets discretionary use of a suite, eight tickets per men’s basketball home game, eight tickets per postseason tournament game, eight tickets per women’s basketball home game and eight tickets per football home game. He’s also allowed to conduct summer youth basketball camps on campus.

Louisville paid Kelsey's former employer, the College of Charleston, $1.1 million to acquire his contract. This is called an assignment and assumption agreement. Louisville was on the opposite end of the same arrangement in 2014, when Texas paid U of L $4.375 million to assume football coach Charlie Strong's employment agreement.

Pope — whose current contract spans April 2024 through March 2029 — is set to make about $5 million in Year 1 not including any performance-based incentives. He has a base salary of $400,000 and will receive $4.6 million for fulfilling media and endorsement obligations (this media and endorsement number is set to increase by $250,000 annually through March 2029). UK also pays for a membership at a “mutually agreed upon country club,” up to 30 hours per contract year of personal air travel and the choice of two cars or an automobile stipend.

Pope gets “20 prime, lower-level tickets” for every men’s basketball home game, 10 tickets for each away and postseason tournament game, eight tickets for each football home game and four tickets for each women’s basketball home game.

BYU, Pope's former employer, billed UK $6 million regarding his buyout. The University of Kentucky said it did not pay a tax gross-up in addition to Pope's buyout.

If U of L were to fire Kelsey without cause, it would owe him 95% of the base salary "for the remainder Term of the Agreement.” If it were to fire him on April 1, assuming Louisville didn’t make the NCAA Tournament and earn him an automatic one-year extension, U of L would owe him approximately $8.7 million (95% of $9.2 million left on his contract) paid monthly.

If Kelsey were to leave under the same set of circumstances, he would owe U of L $8.74 million (95%) “within ninety (90) days of date of termination.”

There’s a provision in Kelsey’s contract stipulating that he “shall use his good faith efforts to seek and secure a Comparable Position,” meaning a job similar to Division I head basketball coach in responsibilities and compensation. That way Louisville can reduce the amount of severance it pays him according to how much he’s earning from his new job. If Kelsey were to “fail to use such good faith efforts,” or not communicate his new employment to Louisville, he would no longer be paid severance (payments would resume if he were to remedy the former situation).

If UK were to fire Pope without cause, it would owe him 75% of the base salary and media and endorsements money "for the remainder of the unexpired term.” If it were to fire him on April 1, assuming Kentucky didn’t advance to the Sweet 16 and earn him an automatic one-year extension, UK would owe him approximately $16.875 million (75% of $22.5 million left on his contract) paid monthly.

If Pope were to leave under the same set of circumstances and Mitch Barnhart was still employed as Kentucky’s athletics director, Pope would owe UK $7.425 million (33%). If Barnhart wasn’t still the AD, Pope would only owe 20%, or $4.5 million.

Louisville was assigned a No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament and will play No. 9 Creighton on Thursday afternoon in Lexington to open the tournament. Kentucky was assigned a No. 3 seed and will play No. 14 Troy on Friday in Milwaukee.

Here’s a breakdown of the incentives Kelsey and Pope could earn depending on their teams’ performances this spring:

Pat Kelsey postseason bonuses for Louisville basketball

Bonuses earned are bolded.

ACC regular-season championship (or share): $50,000
ACC Tournament championship victory: $50,000
ACC Coach of the Year Award: $25,000
National Coach of the Year Award (as named by NABC, AP or Naismith): $50,000

The following postseason bonuses for Kelsey are not cumulative:

NCAA Tournament appearance: $50,000
- Automatic one-year extension with same annual base salary ($2.3 million) unless otherwise negotiated
NCAA round of 32 appearance: $100,000
NCAA Sweet 16 appearance: $150,000
NCAA Elite Eight appearance: $200,000
NCAA Final Four appearance: $250,000
NCAA championship victory: $500,000

Mark Pope postseason bonuses for Kentucky basketball

SEC regular-season championship (or share): $50,000
SEC Tournament championship victory: $50,000
Academic progress rate (minimum 0.975 academic progress rates in any academic year): $25,000
Team GPA (team GPA 3.0 for Fall and Spring): $25,000

The following postseason bonuses for Pope are not cumulative:

NCAA Sweet 16 appearance: $50,000
- Automatic one-year extension and “equal to compensation for the immediately previous Contract Year plus an additional $250,000.”
NCAA Elite Eight appearance: $100,000
NCAA Final Four appearance: $250,000
NCAA championship victory: $500,000

Reach college sports enterprise reporter Payton Titus at ptitus@gannett.com, and follow her on X @petitus25.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Postseason basketball bonuses for UofL's Pat Kelsey, UK's Mark Pope

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How much can Louisville's Pat Kelsey, Kentucky's Mark Pope earn in postseason bonuses?

Pat Kelsey postseason bonuses for Louisville basketball

Mark Pope postseason bonuses for Kentucky basketball

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