Pat Kelsey's Louisville Contract: Salary details, bonuses, perks and more explored
New Louisville coach Pat Kelsey is certainly getting a bump in his pay. New Louisville basketball coach Pat Kelsey's contract with the University of Louisville has been announced, with a five-year deal running until March 15, 2029. The contract will pay Kelsey $2,300,000 per year and if he helps Louisville reach the 2025, 2026 or 2027 NCAA Tournament, the deal will extend for another season. The most lucrative bonus is a $500,000 bonus for an NCAA championship, with lesser bonuses including $250,000 for a Final Four appearance and $200,000 if reaching the Elite Eight. If he is terminated without cause by Louisville, 95% of his remaining pay will be subject to mitigation or offsets from other earnings. Other notable perks include eight tickets for every postseason Louisville basketball game and a $15 million life insurance policy. Kelsey has been praised for his performance at Winthrop and has been nominated for National Coach of the Year consideration from 2021.
Published : 4 weeks ago by Joe Cox in Sports
New Louisville coach Pat Kelsey is certainly getting a bump in his pay. The details of his newly-inked contract with the University of Louisville have gone public, thanks to the Louisville Courier-Journal. Kelsey's contract is a massive upgrade over his deal at Charleston and will place him among the upper echelon of collegiate coaches.
Here's a deeper dive into Louisville's new hire and his contract details.
Kelsey's contract will begin as a five-year deal, running through March 15, 2029. The contract will pay Kelsey $2,300,000 per year. In addition, if Pat Kelsey can help Louisville reach the 2025, 2026 or 2027 NCAA Tournament, the deal will extend for another season.
The buyout terms in Kelsey's contract are interesting. Should he be terminated without cause by Louisville, 95% of his remaining pay will be subject to mitigation or offsets from other earnings, and would be payable over the remaining term of the contract. Conversely, if Kelsey resigns for any other position, 95% of the unpaid compensation is due to Louisville and must be paid within 90 days.
Kelsey's contract includes a series of lucrative bonuses. Among the most lucrative is a $500,000 bonus for an NCAA championship. Lesser bonuses (which are not cumulative) in the same mode include $250,000 for a Final Four appearance and $200,000 for reaching the Elite Eight. A Sweet 16 appearance is worth $150,000, while a Round of 32 run pays $100,000 and an at-large NCAA bid is worth $50,000.
Winning the ACC Tournament at Louisville would pay Pat Kelsey a $50,000 bonus, as would a share or win over the regular-season league title. Winning one of the biggest national Coach of the Year awards pays $50,000, with a $25,000 bonus for winning ACC Coach of the Year.
Among the various perks included in Kelsey's contract are eight tickets for every postseason Louisville basketball game. Kelsey also gets a similar number of tickets for all Louisville football games as well as men's and women's basketball games. Kelsey also received a suite at Louisville's Yum! Center for every men's basketball home game.
Some of the other perks include a $1,000 monthly car allowance, a family membership at the University of Louisville golf club, payment of moving expenses up to $50,000 and a $15 million life insurance policy.
Kelsey's salary has more than doubled since his last contract with Charleston. His final salary there totaled $1.1 million, with a $600,000 base salary and another $500,000 paid from other funds.
Louisville, on the other hand, is getting a discount from its prior coach, Kenny Payne, whose salary was $3,350,000. Notably, Payne was just 12-52 at Louisville. Former Louisville coach Chris Mack earned as much as $4.3 million during his time with the Cardinals.
Kelsey's salary, according to the most recent data from USA Today, is in the middle of the pack of ACC coaching salaries. The league's highest-paid coach is Tony Bennett of Virginia, who earns just over $4 million. Interestingly, North Carolina's Hubert Davis, whose Tar Heels won the ACC and have a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, earns just $1.85 million.
Pat Kelsey grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, just over an hour north of Louisville. After playing at Wyoming and Xavier, Kelsey's first coaching job was at Elder High School in Cincinnati. He then was an assistant at Wake Forest and Xavier for several seasons.
Kelsey's first head coaching job was a Winthrop, where he went 186-95 in nine seasons. Kelsey reached a pair of NCAA Tournaments with the school and had a 24-win season in the 2020 season that was prematurely ended by COVID-19.
Kelsey spent three seasons at Charleston, reaching the NCAA Tournament in each of his last two seasons and posting an overall 75-27 mark at the school. At just 48 years old, Kelsey has already been singled out for National Coach of the Year consideration from his 2021 season at Winthrop.
Topics: Basketball, College Sports