Kentucky Has Fired Mark Stoops—And The School Owes Him A Ton Of Money To Go Away

The Kentucky Wildcats are among the elite college basketball programs. For a brief period around the turn of this decade, it seemed like the school just might be a football powerhouse, too. From 2018 to 2021, Mark Stoops led the Wildcats to four straight bowl wins, including two seasons of at least ten victories and two finishes in the top 15 of the Coaches Poll.

But then, things took a turn. Kentucky eked out a pair of 7-6 seasons in 2022 and 2023 before sputtering to a combined 9-15 record in 2024 and 2025. Those two years included a 3-13 mark in SEC play. After a 41-0 drubbing against the cross-state rival Louisville Cardinals, Kentucky's administration had seen enough and fired Stoops.

The university will have to pay Stoops quite a bit for the honor of going away. As part of his contract, Stoops will receive a buyout worth 75% of his remaining salary. With a sizable deal that ran through 2031, Stoops will make about $37.7 million.

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That's one of the wealthiest buyouts in college football history. Only Jimbo Fisher ($76 million) and Brian Kelly ($54 million) have received larger amounts. James Franklin also had a $49 million buyout from Penn State, though that amount was reduced considerably after Franklin accepted a head coaching job at Virginia Tech.

Stoops finished his 13-year stint at Kentucky with a record of 82-80 and a conference mark of 38-68. The ten wins from the 2021 season were vacated after the NCAA found Kentucky had offered impermissible benefits to 11 players on the team. Even if you subtract those ten wins, the official 72-80 record makes Stoops the winningest coach in Kentucky history.

The Wildcats reached eight consecutive bowl games from 2016 through 2023. Yet as name, image, and likeness deals and constant player transfers became more commonplace over the past couple of seasons, Kentucky couldn't maintain the same level of success on the field.

Now, the school is on the hunt for its next coach. And it's going to owe its former one a ton of money.