- Mark Pope is in his first season as head coach of the Kentucky Wildcats men’s basketball team.
- Pope’s salary for the 2024-25 season is $5 million, tied for 11th most among coaches at Division I public universities.
- Pope can earn up to $700,000 in performance bonuses each season.
LEXINGTON — Mark Pope isn’t making quite as much as his predecessor, John Calipari is earning at Arkansas. Nor is it as much Kentucky once paid Calipari while he still led the program.
But Pope isn’t pinching pennies, either.
He’s among the country’s top-paid coaches, according to USA TODAY’s database on college basketball coaching salaries, which was released Thursday.
Where does Pope, in his first season at UK, rank among his coaching brethren in the SEC? And what else should you know about his contract?
Here is the pertinent information on Pope’s compensation with the Wildcats.
In pay from their respective universities, Pope’s $5 million salary for the 2024-25 campaign is tied for 11th-most nationally — alongside fellow SEC coach Chris Beard of Ole Miss — among coaches employed by Division I public institutions. (By law, private universities, such as Notre Dame and Southern Cal, are not required to publicly disclose their contracts.) The only coaches in college basketball boasting larger salaries than Pope are Bill Self (Kansas), John Calipari (Arkansas), Dan Hurley (UConn), Tom Izzo (Michigan State), Mick Cronin (UCLA), Bruce Pearl (Auburn), Rick Barnes (Tennessee), Scott Drew (Baylor), Tommy Lloyd (Arizona) and Nate Oats (Alabama).
