Louisville invested a lot in Kenny Payne. Cardinals will pay dearly for firing him.

The Kenny Payne era of Louisville men’s basketball has come to an end.

On Wednesday afternoon, U of L announced Payne would not be returning for a third season as the Cardinals’ head coach after two previous seasons that constituted the worst run of basketball in the the school’s modern history.

In a disastrous spell in charge of the Cardinals, Payne went 12-52 across his two seasons as head coach. This included more than 30 losses by double-digit points, at least a dozen defeats by 20 or more points and a 4-28 record in the 2022-23 season, which marked the most defeats in one season in program history.

A national search is underway for Payne’s replacement, but the financial effects of Payne’s dismissal will linger into the future.

The 57-year-old Payne signed an incentive-filled six-year contract to coach the Cardinals in March of 2022 with a salary of $3.35 million per year.

The buyout called for Payne to receive $8 million if Louisville terminated his contract without cause — meaning NCAA violations or some other act beyond wins and losses — in Year 2. According to his contract, Payne’s buyout was set to drop to $6 million at the start of April, but U of L athletics director Josh Heird didn’t wait that long to dismiss Payne.

Payne was paid the equivalent of $837,500 per victory during the 2022-23 season, the equivalent of $418,750 per victory during Louisville’s eight-win 2023-24 season and $558,333 overall for each of his 12 wins at U of L.

Entering the 2023-24 season, Payne was the second-highest paid NCAA Division I men’s college basketball coach in Kentucky, behind only UK’s John Calipari, whom Payne was a longtime assistant for in Lexington.

Of Payne’s annual pay of $3.35 million, $1.675 million came in base salary and another $1.675 million was paid through “additional compensation.” That additional compensation for Payne came from broadcast appearances, promotional activities and agreements with apparel companies — currently Adidas for U of L.

Payne’s contract was slated to run through March 2028, and was structured in a way that his annual pay could have only increased by on-court success. Payne’s base salary would have increased only if the Cardinals made the NCAA Tournament, a stage they haven’t been on since 2019.

His contract also included potential bonuses if Louisville finished atop the ACC regular season standings ($50,000) and if Louisville won the ACC Tournament ($50,000). In both of Payne’s seasons as head coach, Louisville finished last in the ACC regular season standings and lost in the first round of the conference tournament.

Payne was also scheduled to receive a retention bonus payment of $300,000 if he was still the Cardinals’ head coach on April 1, 2025, a payment he will obviously not receive.

Louisville will pay Payne millions of dollars to not be its men’s basketball coach. And Payne isn’t the only former head coach the Cardinals are paying to be away from the program.

According to the Louisville Courier-Journal, when Louisville parted ways with former coach Chris Mack in January 2022, the school agreed to a $4.8 million severance package that is being paid in monthly increments of $133,333.33.

Those payments to Mack — who led U of L to a 63-36 record and one NCAA Tournament appearance in four seasons — will continue until Jan. 31, 2025.

I was sure Kenny Payne was a sure thing for Louisville. How did it all go so wrong?

Kenny Payne out as Louisville men’s basketball coach after a disastrous run with the Cards