The Athletic dives into Kentucky's Champions Blue model, JMI deal: UK is 'Swimming' i

[Matt Dillon]

April marks one year since UK Athletics transitioned to Champions Blue LLC, a holding company created to give the department more flexibility and to generate revenue to remain competitive in the NIL/revenue-sharing era of college sports. August marks one year since the University of Kentucky extended its multimedia rights partnership with JMI Sports to 2040, a deal worth $210 million that essentially brings NIL negotiations in-house. Since then, we’ve all wondered exactly how both the Champions Blue LLC and JMI deal work. Today, we got an in-depth explanation in a feature in The Athletic.

Justin Williams spoke to people at UK and in the industry about Kentucky’s new model, considered the first of its kind in college sports. In short, Kentucky won’t be hurting for money moving forward. Eric Monday, UK’s executive vice president for finance and administration and a Champions Blue board member, is quoted as saying that UK wants to grow its annual budget to over $200 million, to the $225 to $250 million range. That would put them near the biggest players in college sports, like Texas and Ohio State, which have budgets over $300 million.

The Athletic dives into Kentucky's Champions Blue model, JMI deal: UK is 'Swimming' in Money

[***St.Patterson-54***]

Sounds like we have all the money we need to secure a remarkable roster for next year and beyond. It seems obvious that Pope intends to assemble from the Portal rather than HS, which is fine with me. I just hope he does it in a way that makes more sense than last year. We need 2-3 very strong ball handlers that can also play aggressive defense, a couple athletic wings, and a couple of strong big men that can pass. GET IT DONE, POPE.

[Trueblujr]

I didn't go through the paywall to get the full article, but I wonder if it addresses the exclusivity deal that JMI expects players to sign. From what all we've been hearing, that was the biggest hurdle that's stonewalling recruits. But the article did also say we had several players with deals above the cap for next year, so wondering who those guys are and how that may factor into them staying.

[South jones]

IF MONEY ISN'T THE ISSUE, THEN POPE SHOULD BE ABLE TO RECRUIT QUALITY PLAYERS AND THEN DEVELOPE A SUCCESSFUL GAME PLAN..
WAIT A MINUTE, WHAT HAPPENED THIS SEASON?
$20 mil

[bthaunert]

Sounds like we have all the money we need to secure a remarkable roster for next year and beyond. It seems obvious that Pope intends to assemble from the Portal rather than HS, which is fine with me. I just hope he does it in a way that makes more sense than last year. We need 2-3 very strong ball handlers that can also play aggressive defense, a couple athletic wings, and a couple of strong big men that can pass. GET IT DONE, POPE.

I believe his intention was to bring high school guys in, but he can't land one, so the obvious part with the transfer portal is more out of necessity. At this point, I'd like to see a handful of guys returning from this past year added to a portal class.

[Pete Hogwallop]

IF MONEY ISN'T THE ISSUE, THEN POPE SHOULD BE ABLE TO RECRUIT QUALITY PLAYERS AND THEN DEVELOPE A SUCCESSFUL GAME PLAN..
WAIT A MINUTE, WHAT HAPPENED THIS SEASON?
$20 mil

The amount of money was never substantiated and 3 of the best players were hurt most of the season.

[UKHoops01]

The amount of money was never substantiated and 3 of the best players were hurt most of the season.

I don't want to use injuries as an excuse because that was pretty much the case last year as well....with Jaxson Robinson, Kerr Krissa, Lamont Butler and Andrew Carr all missing a large chunk of the season.. However last year's roster construction was better, and as a result the team was better.

[Tomcats1990]

I believe Ohio State is doing a similar if not identical blueprint for their athletic department.