Kenny Payne to receive monthly installments of his Louisville buyout through March of 2027

Louisville is moving on into their next coaching tenure with their hire of Pat Kelsey, formerly of Charleston. However, they’ll be feeling the effects of the end of Kenny Payne’s for some time now that we know how the school will be paying his buyout.

Brooks Holton of the Courier Journal shared a breaking report with a breakdown of Payne’s buyout from the Cardinals. It will be a payment of $7,250,000 that they’ll pay monthly through the estimated date of March 31, 2027. That breaks down to $201,388.88 a month from now through the next three years.

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Per Holton’s report, Payne, with his buyout and base salary, made a total of around $13,950,000 over his two seasons. The U of L Athletic Association (ULAA) will also cover his health insurance and for any eligible dependents. That will happen until June 30th, 2025 or until he gets coverage from a new position. He will be keeping a life insurance policy with a value of $15 million too.

Payne’s firing was clearly in the works considering what it ended up costing the Cardinals. They could have waited three weeks to do it and his buyout would have been two million dollars less. That drop would have been from eight million to six million. Still, they didn’t feel as though they could wait as they paid to do it just within days after their season-ending loss to NC State, who is now in the Final Four, in the ACC Tournament.

Payne’s record at Louisville finished at 12-52 over his two seasons. They went 4-28 over his debut year and then improved by only four games this past season at 8-24. Many expected his eventual firing throughout the season. Still, AD Josh Heird allowed the season to play out in full before making that ultimate decision.

Louisville is now on the books for payments of three head coaches. They still owe Chris Mack, who is now expected to take the now open job at Charleston, monthly payments of $133,333.33 until January 31st, 2025 along with Payne’s. That’s along with paying the million-dollar buyout of Kelsey with the Cougars as well. They’ll now be paying him his contract’s total of $2.3 million per year over the next five years.

That’s what the Cardinals will pay Kelsey to turn their program around after four straight seasons of no more than 13 wins. This comes after a career of a dozen years at Winthrop and Charleston with a record of 261-122 (.681). That includes the last two seasons where the Cougars have gone 58-12 (.829), swept their conference titles in the CAA, and made the NCAA Tournament both times.

It’s going to take plenty of work to move Louisville past the last few years. That means both on the court as well as off of it now that Payne’s continual payment is now known.