Matt Jones goes in depth on Kentucky’s contract with JMI

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what I mean I think is the most important piece of news. It broke during the show yesterday and it’s that UK and JMI have signed a 15-year deal for $465 million. Just start right there. That’s a lot of money. That’s $30.3 million or no 30 $31 million a year. So that’s a lot of money. Um, you know, I I I I as one person explained to me, this takes care of our revshare. And so, as you’re sitting here and you’re balancing the pros and the cons, start with the pro. The rev share is now paid for. By the way, what I would say is when I start hearing UK raise other prices because of the revshare, I want you to remember that one of the things that was explained to me yesterday is the rev share is now paid for. So as as costs of other things go up, remember the rev share is paid for by this. Just something to think about. That’s good. But I do think this is going to be an extremely important change for uh the future of UK sports. And I sort of spent the last 24 hours kind of in my mind weighing the pros and the cons. And I tend to come out of it pessimistic. Not a like not that I think the apocalypse is coming. Not that I think it’s the worst thing ever, but I’m pessimistic and I will explain to you why I’m pessimistic. Now, you can be pessimistic and it’s still things can be good. I was pessimistic about Mitch Barnhart leading us into the NIL era and while it was a slow start, I think he finished pretty well. But I’m pessimistic about this for a number of reasons. But let me first explain to you what has happened. So JMI is now in charge of two important things. One is they are now in charge of doing the quote unquote contracts for the athletes. Now what does that mean? Of the $20.6 million every coach will be given a certain amount of money that they are able to divvy up. Let’s say so let’s say that Mark Stops is told you will have $15 million. Mark Stops and the people on his staff and that will include I think it includes like a football GM decide how they’re going to spend that $15 million. You know, it’s up to them and they can decide who’s worth what. But let’s say they decide Drew Franklin is worth $1 million. Drew Franklin may be uh demanding $2 million. That’s where JMI will come in and have to negotiate that other million. As a practical phase, I would just say to people, this will come up with every good player. I actually think this JMI thing is going to be bigger for basketball than football because it will be the basketball players that will demand more money than what the rev share gives. Does that make sense? I think most football players what they get in the rev share will be their primary source of money for basketball. So I kind of see JMI as now being like 80% of a basketball GM. By the way, that’s what Club Blue was. Club Blue did most of their work in basketball. They did a little football, but it was mostly basketball. So I think what JMI is going to be doing is mostly basketball, which is why I’m a little nervous. the so that’s part one of their job. The second part of their job is when they get these guys, let’s say they need a million dollars, they’re going to have to co- come up with it. Now, I was very worried yesterday that JMI was essentially locking these players in that if you signed with UK, you couldn’t do your own outside deals. I’m told that’s not the case. So, that makes me feel better. That was a big concern. That was my big concern. One of my big concerns. That makes me feel better. There will still be some athletes who will have the ability to do their own thing. That’s good. But it’s still going to ultimately be JMI’s responsibilities to negotiate the deals and to go and find the money. Here’s why that concerns me. And this is hard for me to talk about because JMI works with our station. I come on after the postgame show. But if you go through history here, JMI and UK have a relationship that is very unique. JMI only does the media rights for three major schools, Kentucky, Notre Dame, and UCLA. They have a lot of small schools, but they’re the only ones they do the major schools for. They work with a couple of other schools that name in their stadiums and stuff, but when it comes to being the primary media sponsor for a college, it’s just UK, Notre Dame, and UCLA. Guess how many schools JMI is taking on the role of being the NIL group for none. We’re the only one. We’re the only one. We are the only school in the country that will have a relationship like this with JMI. Is that going to work? We’ll see. How many schools are doing this period? Well, Learfield, that’s who does the broadcasting for Louisville. They have a lot of schools. They’ve got like 50. How many schools are they doing it for? Three. Georgia, Ohio State, and Texas. Now, those are pretty good schools. Leerfield is taking on this role. JMI is with those schools. But what worries me is A, Lefield’s good, and B, those schools are still keeping their private collectives. We are the only school that I can find who is getting rid of their private collective and giving it all to one company and we’re giving it to one company who doesn’t have any other schools. So the caller who worried, well what if it’s UK or UCLA? How do they decide? UCLA is still doing their own thing. They’re not letting JMI do it. So that’s a lot of faith in one company. Wouldn’t you agree? Oh yeah. Let’s say it was the best company in the world. That’s a lot of faith. I have had a complaint for a long time. If you’ve listened to the show, you know it’s not unique. I have had a complaint that I don’t think JMI is up to date on everything. All you got to do is listen to the postgame show. You know, privately they ban Drew from coming on the field. They didn’t credential like they were a big part of Mario not getting credentialed. These are little things about KSR. But how do you look at today’s modern world and go the the social media creator for the biggest website shouldn’t have a media credential? You do it by being behind the times, right? Mhm. I worry is this company that still sends us cease and desist letters for putting on KSR UK plays Old Miss and using the UK logo. Is this the company that’s going to understand modern NIL deals? I worry about we travel to all kinds of schools across the country. Let me be very clear about this and I said this to someone at UK yesterday, so I’m not talking out of school. UK of all the schools I’ve visited in the major conferences is more behind on modern media dealing with modern media than any other school that we deal with when it comes to media relations. UK gives less access to us than even the schools that were the road team for. I can go to Tennessee and I can go to Louisville and they’ll give me more access than when I’m in Rupena. Now, why should you care about that? You probably shouldn’t. Except the people that were making those decisions are now making all the decision. As I said on social media, UK athletics is now JMI and JMI is now UK athletics. Will it work? I hope so. I wrote the CEO or the CEO of JMI and I said hey would you like to talk this week? She said yes. So I will do that and I will recommend what I think and she can feel free to ignore it or whatever. But I am concerned because the thing that has always been the best to me about UK sports is obviously the games, but we’ve been pretty good at the business side of things. Wouldn’t you agree? And in this NIL era, by having the people that they were doing the contracts before, I think we had pretty smart people doing it. The weakness has always been to me the modernization to the new world of media. Well, now the people that were in charge of that are in charge of everything. And that worries me. Is it fixable? Sure. Are there smart people there? Sure. Are there nice people there? Sure. But we are giving what I think is the hardest thing for a basketball and football program to do. recruit players. That’s the hardest thing to do. We are now essentially turning a huge part of that over to a private company. And it worries me. It would worry me if I was a Lefield school. And it probably worries them too cuz they’re still keeping their private collectives. But we now have no fallback plan. If JMI is not good, we’re not going to get players. If they are, maybe it still will work. I can tell you, I had multiple people write me from other schools and go, “You should be a little worried about this.” I’m talking coaches from like other SEC schools. I think it’s nerve-wracking. Now, they’re going to get a ton of money. I’m going to guess UK is going to get more money from their local media deal than probably any school in the country. That’s good. Some of the wi worries we’ve had about are we going to have the revenue to compete? That’s probably taken care of. So that’s good. But are we going to be able to be in a world where the rules, Drew, can change overnight? We are locked into a 15-year deal with JMI. And the one thing I’ve always worried about them is are they modern? That’s where I am on. That’s my concern. That’s my I don’t want to say frustration, but that’s my worry is and I’ll finish with this. I use this example. This is just in the realm of media. But think you listen to the example I’m using and then move it to recruiting. The Kentucky Derby this year invited 50 Tik Tok influencers to come and have all access to the Derby. Why did they do it? Because it’s the future. New and younger audience. Drew and I are being invited to go to the Super Bowl, the NFL playoffs, the combine, all the draft, all of that with access from the NFL, right? Schools like at Old Miss, etc., their media is allowed to go to practice. What happens at Kentucky right now? We couldn’t get Mario a credential. Drew has to stand outside instead of being on Rup Arena. No media gets to see anything. I look at how these other schools are adapting to the modernization of the world and I think UK is far behind. Now, that’s going to be everything. It’s not just going to be media. It’s going to be recruiting. It’s going to be fan interaction. It’s going to be tickets. I don’t know how you can’t be a little bit nervous about that. 859-2802287. We’ll take