Mark Stoops agreed to spread out contract buyout to help strike a deal with Kentucky

It feels surreal to type this, but Mark Stoops is no longer the head coach of the Kentucky Wildcats.

Late Sunday night, Jeff Drummond reported that Stoops and Kentucky had agreed to part ways. However, national reporters like Pete Thamel and Pete Nakos both said that Kentucky fired Stoops.

It sounds like the former is what transpired.

According to Chris Low, Stoops agreed to spread his buyout over years instead of paying it out over 60 days to help get this separation agreement done.

“Stoops was never going to walk away on his own, but when Kentucky approached him about a separation, he said he would be willing to negotiate an agreement allowing UK to spread out payments over a number of years instead of paying $38 million buyout within 60 days of his firing,” Low wrote on Twitter.

As hot of a seat as Stoops was on, he still held all the leverage in contract negotiations. He deserves credit for giving up this much, because he was in line to get exactly what his contract called for.