What John Calipari did with $ 1 million of docu-series

John Calipari has earned $ 7.45 million from the University of Kentucky for the 2017-18 basketball season – more than any other public school coach in the country.

He also earned more than $ 1.3 million in athletic-related external revenue, largely due to the previously unreported seven-figure payout of producers of a series of very accessible team documents. .

According to a copy of Calipari's latest available foreign income report, which USA TODAY Sports has earned this winter as part of its annual men's basketball coaching compensation survey, the Kentucky coach received $ 1 million Producers of "Inside the Madness: Kentucky Basketball" last year – funds that, according to Calipari, were earmarked for donations to others.

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In a statement provided to USA TODAY Sports through the sports department, the Kentucky coach said he had informed his players of the money and his intention to allocate it. to charitable causes before they unanimously vote to appear in the 10 episode series aired on Facebook. Look at last spring.

"In a perfect world, some of the money we would have drawn from the Facebook series would have been distributed to our players," said Calipari in his statement. "Our rules just do not allow it, I'm proud of how they chose to do something that would make a difference in the lives of many others through charitable donations."

Calipari said more than $ 600,000 of this money had been donated to at least eight non-profit organizations, including the Jimmy V Foundation and the Urban League of Lexington-Fayette County. He added that an additional $ 141,000 had been allocated to debt relief for 19 students at the Kentucky College of Education.

It seems that at least some of the money has been used to help those in Calipari's orbit. He said in his statement that nearly $ 100,000 had been placed in "an educational fund that will distribute money to relieve the debts of the colleges of staff, managers and former players who have made a difference in our programs in Massachusetts, Memphis and Kentucky over the years ".

In an email, Kentucky spokesman Jay Blanton told USA TODAY Sports that the Calipari arrangement had been reviewed by the school's legal counsel office and did not need to be reviewed. by its ethics committee.

Calipari stated that his foreign income amounted to $ 1 million between July 1, 2017 and June 30, 2018. The NCAA members voted in 2016 to stop forcing schools to collect external revenue reports from sports personnel, but Kentucky continued to require them as a measure of compliance. (Members reversed the Foreign Revenue Documentation course in August and schools are reimplementing the reports.)

Calipari indicated that the source of the payment was "Kentucky All Access LLC" – which, according to documents filed by the state, shares the address and point of contact with the production company at the time. origin of the series, Crazy Legs Productions. The Kentucky Film and Development Bureau's public records show that the entity received just over $ 440,000 in state tax credits related to the project as part of a government incentive program. 'State.

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Deputy Sports Director, DeWayne Peevy, told USA TODAY Sports that the producers of the show had contacted Calipari through his representation after the school had initially refused to appear. engage to participate in a version of the show intended for Showtime. Calipari, Crazy Legs Productions and Executive Producer Jason Sciavicco are all represented by CAA Sports.

Peevy said Kentucky later signed the series in November because of Facebook's timing and reach.

"We thought we had a lot of things about people being disconnected from our team because of the change of list," said Peevy. "So we thought it was a way for people to get to know our kids."

A third-party entity, JMI Sports, owns local multimedia and marketing rights for Kentucky sports, and the school has not been directly compensated for its participation, according to university officials.

A spokesman for Crazy Legs Productions declined to comment on any financial arrangements with Calipari in connection with the broadcast, citing the confidentiality of these agreements.

It is fairly common for unlimited access programs to offer some kind of compensation to their participants. According to the documents obtained by The Detroit Free Press, the Michigan football program has received $ 2.25 million for access and licensing related to its show behind the scenes on Amazon in 2017. Navy spokesman, Scott Strasemeier, meanwhile confirmed that the Navy Sports Department had been compensated when its football team was selected by Showtime.

Kurt Svoboda, spokesman for Strasemeier and Michigan, said their coaches were not paid specifically for their participation in the shows. Florida State Football and Notre Dame Football spokespersons, who have also been featured at Showtime in recent years, have not responded to requests for comment.

Calipari reported an additional $ 335,000 in outside revenue in 2017-2018, in addition to the payment of the series of documents. He received $ 115,000 from CAA, $ 33,000 from Nike, and $ 65,000 from an address to Land O'Lakes Dairy last summer, among other income.

Contributor: Jon Hale from Louisville Courier-Journal

Follow Steve Berkowitz on Twitter @ByBerkowitz. Contact Tom Schad at [email protected] or on Twitter @ Tom_Schad.