There’s no hiding what has become of Louisville basketball these past few years. The product on the court is miles away from the standard that was set by Hall of Fame coaches Denny Crum and Rick Pitino, without a clear answer. No one is doubting the tough circumstances that head coach Kenny Payne was thrown into as a first-time head coach, but no one can doubt his failure to make the best of the circumstances either. Other coaches in similar or worse situations have made diamonds out of coal in almost no time at all.

Following a terrible two-week stretch topped off with a blowout loss to Kentucky at home, the heat was on and the word was out— Kenny Payne was likely to be let go and soon. When Athletic Director Josh Heird decided to retain coach Payne through the new year, he told WDRB’s Eric Crawford “I want this basketball team to be great, and it’s a long way from that right now. So absolutely I understand (fan) frustrations… And if you haven’t made some deposits in the bank, people aren’t going to give you the benefit of the doubt.”

A lack of deposits in the win column makes Payne’s seat comfortably hot, but it may also be the exact thing keeping him through the new year.

If Payne were to be relieved of his position any time before April, he would be owed $8 million. If Heird were able to wait until April 1st, the buyout would drop to $6 million. For an athletic department that brought in $146 million in revenue in 2022, $2 million sounds like a drop in the bucket—it’s only one percent of the department’s revenue. Regardless of the buyout amount, it likely won’t be paid in a lump sum but rather spread out in incremental payments over several years.

This is a great way to lessen the blow of having to let a coach go early, but you’re paying someone for years to not be associated with the university. If an athletic department gets too trigger-happy with firings, then they’re on the hook for multiple buyouts. That is exactly the predicament Louisville has found itself in. Since 2018, the University of Louisville Athletic Association (ULAA) has been contractually obligated to pay a total of $35.5 million in buyouts to several parties from 2018 until 2038.

This type of payment to a former employee is what’s known as “dead money”, and it is a major problem for college sports in general. From Jan. 2010 to Jan. 2021, over $533.6 million was spent on buyouts across all college athletics programs, and Auburn University topped the list, with $31.2 million in 11 years.

From May 2018 to Jan. 2025, Louisville is set to pay over $33.6 million in “dead money”. Before 2018, the largest buyout the ULAA had ever paid was $612,000 to former head football coach Steve Kragthorpe.