A student’s performance on the basketball court undeniably brings money into the coffers of many schools. At the same time, too many of the athletes, particularly Black student-athletes, are underperforming academically and are at risk of losing their NCAA eligibility and, more important, failing in college overall.
When the University of Kentucky Wildcats won the NCCA Division I Basketball Championship this spring, the victory did more than put another big trophy in the showcase of the venerable intercollegiate sports powerhouse. It helped ensure the financial outlook for what has become a phenomenal, and oft-times controversial, money-making machine for all involved.
Days after the final buzzer of the NCAA championship game went silent, the entire Wildcats starting lineup—three freshmen and two sophomores—said they were entering the June draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). So did senior Darius Miller.
In 2010, freshman John Wall left Kentucky after one season and went on to sign a three-year deal with the Washington Wizards worth $16.59 million. When asked if he thought Wall would return for his sophomore season, Wildcats Coach Calipari said, “He better not be.”
It is not that Calipari would not have welcomed his freshman guard back for another season; he just did not feel the move would have been advantageous to his player.
“I am saying that, if he came to me and he was the No. 1 pick in the draft and he said that he wanted to come back, we would probably be wrestling around on the floor,” Calipari said on the “Dan Patrick Show” in 2010. “Because there is no reason other than me trying to win more games that he should come back.”
It seems that Kentucky didn’t miss a beat after Wall left, as, though the Wildcats lost in the Final Four to the University of Connecticut in 2011, they went on to win the national championship the following year. Following the championship win, Calipari was advised by Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart that he and two assistants were having their contracts boosted. Calipari was getting an 8.3-percent increase in his salary over the remaining seven years of his contract.
