An amendment to Kentucky athletics director Mitch Barnhart’s contract made in August 2013 eliminated bonuses based on the NCAA tournament play of the men’s basketball and women’s basketball teams. The amendment, including Barnhart’s current bonus structure, can be found here.
For some people, it was worth a lot of money when Aaron Harrison drained a clutch 3-pointer that sent Kentucky to the Final Four.
As USA TODAY Sports’ Steve Berkowitz points out, the Kentucky coaches earned over $300,000 in bonuses when Harrison made that three to advance the Wildcats. The figure isn’t wildly different from other incentive packages at other schools, but it does show just how much money is being thrown around in these NCAA programs, none of which is going to the players.
According to contracts obtained by USA TODAY Sports in conjunction with Indiana University’s National Sports Journalism Center, Kentucky’s advance to the Final Four means the following:
Head coach John Calipari gets a $150,000 bonus. (That’s on top of his $5.2 million in base compensation for this season, the $100,000 bonus he got for Kentucky being the Sweet 16 and the additional $100,000 bonus he got for them being the Elite Eight.)