GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Only a few things in college basketball could overshadow the title game of any NCAA Tournament, especially one as anticipated as what we're getting here inside State Farm Stadium on Monday night. But a divorce between Kentucky and John Calipari is definitely high on the list.
And now here we are.
At some point this week, perhaps as early as Tuesday, it will reportedly become official that John Vincent Calipari, the 65 year-old Naismith Memorial Hall of Famer, is leaving Kentucky for Arkansas in a move that is surprising on the surface but totally sensible provided the context. Simply put, this seems like a situation where everybody, at least in theory, will be better off moving forward, like a situation where Arkansas fans and Kentucky fans probably both woke up happy Monday morning, which is not normally how high-profile coaching developments work.
More often, somebody feels on the wrong side of things.
But not this time.
Arkansas is getting what it wants -- specifically Calipari, a larger-than-life figure who has undeniably slipped in recent years but still just assembled and coached a team at Kentucky that was good enough to secure a No. 3 seed in the 2024 NCAA Tournament. And Kentucky is also getting what it wants -- specifically a coaching change after 15 years that won't cost the school a single penny of the estimated $33 million it would've owed Calipari had it removed him after his season ended with an 80-76 loss to Oakland in the first round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament two years after his season ended with an 85-79 loss to Saint Peter's in the first round of the 2022 NCAA Tournament.
It's been a rough stretch at UK.
Things had gotten awkward and uncomfortable, so much so that when reports initially surfaced Sunday that Calipari was in negotiations with Arkansas, what amounts to Big Blue Nation was celebrating on social media, begging their coach to please move on while creating a scene that would've been unimaginable back in, say, 2015, when Calipari was in some ways the king of sport after making four Final Fours in a five-year span and winning the 2012 NCAA Tournament. In that moment, Calipari seemed likely to continue operating at the tip-top of college basketball for at least another decade.
But then -- at the risk of oversimplifying things, but then -- college basketball started to change in a variety of ways, Calipari was slow to change with it, and what followed were nine years of ups and downs but largely disappointments, evidence being that Calipari is still stuck on one national championship despite coaching something close to a billion future NBA players between then and now. Furthermore, he's gone nine straight seasons at UK without a trip to the Final Four, which is unusual for this program that has made 17 Final Fours in its proud history and disappointing given the amount of talent that has called Rupp Arena home throughout most of the past decade.
For all of these reasons and more, it was clearly time for Calipari and Kentucky to move in different directions -- but how? Kentucky either couldn't or didn't want to pay his estimated $33 million buyout to make a change after the loss to Oakland, and who on Earth would offer a deal so good that Calipari could reasonably leave these miserable times at UK without also leaving millions of dollars on the table?
Answer: Arkansas!
The reported contractual details suggest Calipari will make roughly as much at Arkansas as he would've made at Kentucky, and he'll have so many name, image and likeness resources with the Razorbacks that buying players out of the transfer portal or prospects from high school shouldn't be difficult. Bottom line, not only is it reasonable for Calipari to make this move right now, it would frankly be crazy for him not to, given that his family's quality of life in a place they're no longer wanted can't possibly been enjoyable.
So John Calipari is off to Arkansas.
Razorback fans are excited.
UK fans are, too.
