ADU Photo
Dear Big Blue Nation,
On Friday, the settlement in the House v. NCAA, Hubbard v. NCAA and Carter v. NCAA cases (collectively, “the House case“) was granted final approval by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.
This settlement represents a significant step forward for college athletics, providing additional opportunities for student-athletes to benefit from their participation while establishing a framework to maintain competitive integrity—for the sake of student-athletes, institutions and fans alike.
As we have done many times before, we will embrace this change and rise to the challenge of remaining competitive in a dynamic landscape. UK Athletics is proud to be a premier program, competing for championships in the nation’s best conference.
With this new framework, we will continue to do what it takes to remain competitive. We will remain focused on education and competition, putting championship rings on fingers and diplomas in hands.
We plan to not only survive but thrive.
We will rely on our strengths: our innovative legacy, our position in the Southeastern Conference, and the unified support of the University of Kentucky and the best fanbase in America, the Big Blue Nation. These are the cornerstones of our path forward.
To meet the demands of this new era, however, all of us will need to adjust how we support college sports.
The new model introduces revenue sharing with student-athletes and other annual cost increases that will add approximately $20 million to $30 million of expenses to our annual budget, in addition to ongoing costs such as inflation.
These expenses, expected to grow annually and be supported by new efforts to generate revenue, will help position us to support our programs and ensure the success of our athletes and teams.
We are committed to navigating these challenges responsibly, with the desire to maintain our high standards and support our varsity sports.
Now that the settlement is approved, the responsibility for its implementation and enforcement falls to the Power Four conferences and the NCAA. To oversee this process, the College Sports Commission has been formed.
The Commission will be put in place to facilitate revenue sharing in college sports and ensure that name, image and likeness (NIL) deals made between student-athletes and third parties are fair and comply with the rules.
We know there is still much to be done between now and when the new framework takes effect July 1.
To learn more about the settlement framework and its anticipated impact on UK Athletics operations, please refer to these frequently asked questions.
As we move forward, the Big Blue Nation’s continued support remains crucial. Together, we can embrace these changes to elevate Kentucky Athletics to new heights.
Thank you for your ongoing passion and commitment to the University of Kentucky. Together, let’s continue to support our athletes and help them succeed in everything they do.
Go Big Blue!
Sincerely,
Mitch Barnhart
Director of Athletics
University of Kentucky
13 Responses
Damn….I thought he was announcing his retirement!
Lol same here!
Let me see – a 4* RB has offers from all the SEC schools + OSU & Michigan. All with new ( for lack of a better description salary cap ) program all are offering him $5 – where’s he going ??
On the flip side it works to our advantage when the ball gets round.
The state of college athletics today is sad for many of us. It may and does make a few young people very rich money wise I guess, not sure it helps them become better people where a person’s word is his bond. Millions of dollars are thrown around and coughed up like it’s peanuts to teenagers, who for many of them, couldn’t even hold a real job today. I quit watching college sports when NIL took front and center. That nonsense just further legalized an already corrupted system, and now we move to "revenue sharing?"
UK football, of which I was a huge fan since the Stoll Field days, will never be competitive against the rich SEC foes they face year in and year out; especially the programs with a storied football history. It took me 60 years to realize that reality. I read VV’s occasionally now just to see what bad choices are still being made in this day and age of sports insanity, where money trumps loyalty, and one’s athletic prowess goes to the highest bidder, and their verbal commitments to a coach and university mean absolutely nothing at all, forget the cost of free education too! Might I also add how much it costs the average fan now just to watch live and in person a major college football game inside a state of the art stadium. No Thanks!!!!
I am with you.
Thanks for expressing this view so well.
I was wondering what happened to you. I agree my friend.
A message from Terry Wren. Do you see what’s happening to the football program Mitch? We lost the only good recruiter we had to Louisville. Vince has held Stoops up for far to long now he’s gone to our rival program. The writing is on the wall Stoops is done and you sir should be done too. Bad contracts has caused both the football and basketball program before Pope to slip. Stoops deserves 2.5 million per win? Is that what we’ve become? You sir deserve to be fired. Take Stoops and the rest of his Youngstown cronies with him. WE ARE TIRED OF LOSING! WE ARE ALSO TIRED OF YOU MITCH! Stoops is done even his best friend since childhood sees it. He just switched teams. Hire Jon Sumerall now. They should say if we can pay athletes that play college basketball 2-4 million a year. We can’t buyout a coach for 40 million? That’s a lie. Fire Stoops now and Hire Sumerall. He could take the guys we have on this team and win at least 8-9 games. I guarantee he would win easily 8 games maybe 9 or 10 with this same roster. His roster at Tulane was a bottom of the conference roster and in his first season he has them a game away from the college playoff. Why not fire Stoops and get him before another team does and he signs a long contract.
Pope has turned out to be a great hire. The one area he needs to work on is a little more discipline. At times it seems like he lost last years team only for them to figure everything back out. He never even yells at the refs. He definitely leads by example.
UK football may not have bottomed out quite yet but rapidly heading in that direction with the announcement that the Big Dog was moving down the road to hated rival to accept FB General Manager job. Would someone please post For Sale signs in front yards of both Barnhart and Stoops?
Vince Marrow is leaving Kentucky to become the general manager of the Louisville Cardinals football team. The USS Mark Stoops is taking on water and sinking fast.
How on earth could Barnhart allow "the Big Dog" break a contract to go our biggest rival without a buyout requirement? Assistant coach, General Manager, What’s the difference? He’s going to do the same job. What an idiot. Let’s see if we get this straight. Give Stoops a nine million dollar contract with a mandatory umteen million dollar buyout for doing very little and allow our best recruiter to break the contract free and clear to go to Louisville. Are you kidding me. Well, I can already see the rats running down the mooring lines.
Think it might be called Pitino 2.0. Wonder if Pitino called him to congratulate and welcome to the club?
Vince leaving was a hurtful, negatively impactful decision for Stoops and BBN. It was as big of a "up yours" as he could have delivered. He went from multi year loved, admired, respected, dedicated coach to most hated in span of few hours. This will impact our program for predictively years to come. If he was pissed off at Stoops mid-year last season why wouldn’t he take the UNC offer with Belichick and a much more honorable way out the door?