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Kentucky’s assistants to make $1.44 million combined next season

NCAA Men's Final Four - Practice

Getty Images

Getty Images

It pays to be on the coaching staff at Kentucky.

Quite literally.

According to numbers released by the university over the weekend, John Calipari’s coaching staff will be making a combined $1.44 million next season. Kenny Payne, the lead recruiter on the Wildcat staff, has a new contract worth $2.1 million over the next three years. Payne is likely the highest-paid assistant coach in the country.

For comparison’s sake, at least 22 head coaches that made last year’s NCAA tournament made less last season than the $700,000 that Payne will average over the course of this contract -- Harvard, BYU, Hampton and Butler did not make the salaries public. That includes Dayton head coach Archie Miller and Davidson’s Bob McKillop.

John Robic will be making $415,000 next season while Tony Barbee, who got promoted from special assistant to Calipari, will be making $375,000, the same amount that former assistant Barry ‘Slice’ Rohrssen was making before he left for the same job at St. John’s.