These are tough times for Bill Self and Kansas basketball, which just dropped out of the latest AP Top 25 poll for the first time in nearly four years following an ugly stretch of five losses in nine games. The Jayhawks are just 11-9 since the start of the new year, with only five of those wins coming in Quad 1 and 2 games; simply put, this isn't a very good team right now, squandering the final year of star big man Hunter Dickinson with an offense that hasn't put nearly enough perimeter firepower around him.
It's also something of ... well, not necessarily a trend, but maybe a general direction. This is the fourth time in the last seven seasons that Kansas has lost at least nine games, and they've failed to reach the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament in six of those years. Of course, the one exception in that span featured a national title, Self's second to go along with four Final Four appearances during a spectacular two decades at the helm in Lawrence. If anyone has earned the benefit of the doubt here, it's the guy who's already in the Basketball Hall of Fame.
But time comes for us all, especially college basketball coaches. And while it's far too early to declare that Self has lost the magic touch, this recent stretch has been ugly enough for fans to start at least considering the possibility of what life might look like with a new coach on the sidelines. Doing so would cost a whole lot of money, however, thanks to the contract Self signed back in 2023.
Bill Self salary and bonuses with Kansas basketball
Just a year removed from that 2021-22 national title, Kansas amended Self's contract to create what amounts to a lifetime deal. Self will make approximately $53 million over the first five years, and at the conclusion of each season, one more year gets tacked on to the end of his term. He'll also get a $5 million retention bonus if he serves the first five seasons of the contract, which would require him to remain at Kansas through the 2027-28 campaign.
As you might imagine, that deal made Self possibly the richest coach in the country, and was believed to be the heftiest contract ever handed out to a basketball coach at a public university. And with every historic contract comes an equally historic buyout.
What is Bill Self's buyout at Kansas?
Because Self's contract is designed to create a continuous string of rolling five-year windows, there is no declining buyout for fans to try and wait out. Self's buyout is set at one fixed number: $23.1 million. That's quite the chunk of change, especially considering that Kansas would need to add to it whatever the cost of Self's replacement winds up being (a figure that would include, presumably a buyout of his own, as the Jayhawks would almost certainly poach someone away from another school or organization).
Maybe the situation keeps devolving, and eventually gets to a point at which it's clear to everyone involved that Self doesn't have what it takes to keep Kansas among the nation's elite. But with a buyout that large, and with such an impressive track record of success, it's going to take a lot more than a few ugly weeks to convince the school to bite the bullet.