Mark Pope’s future, Kentucky football’s ceiling and a federal college sports bill all landed in the same batch of questions this week, and the answers ranged from football optimism to a blunt rejection of the new Senate-passed legislation.
The first issue was the one that always seems to follow Kentucky basketball: what happens if the football team is rolling and the men’s hoops program is not? Asked by Gene McRoberts on Facebook, “If (Kentucky) football has a good season, goes to a bowl and (Mark) Pope has a bad season, does he survive?” Mark’s response was that strong football seasons have long eased some of the heat on the basketball program.
“I have always thought that when UK football is good, it takes some of the scrutiny and pressure off of the men’s basketball program.”
He pointed to two past seasons as examples. After Bear Bryant’s 11-1 team in 1950, Kentucky men’s basketball won the NCAA championship under Adolph Rupp in 1951.
After Fran Curci’s 10-1 season in 1977, the Wildcats followed with Joe B. Hall’s title in 1978.
But that history only goes so far. Mark said if Pope were to have a “bad season,” the football team’s results would not change the coach’s fate.
The football conversation then shifted to Saturday’s matchup at South Carolina, where Kentucky is trying to stop a four-game skid against Shane Beamer’s Gamecocks. On the field, the assignment is straightforward and tough: slow down a South Carolina rushing attack that leads the SEC at 262 yards per game, get Kentucky’s own run game moving against a Gamecocks defense allowing just 95 yards on the ground per contest, and force some mistakes from LaNorris Sellers, who has thrown four interceptions this season. Kentucky’s defense has six picks already, and that takeaway edge may matter.
From there, the focus moved to the bigger-picture question that always invites a little fantasy and a lot of math: can the Cats make the College Football Playoff? Mark pointed out that last season the SEC got five teams into the CFP - Georgia, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Alabama - while Vanderbilt, despite a 10-2 regular season, was left out.
That’s why, in his view, Kentucky would probably need to finish 10-2 to have any realistic shot. With four games left against teams currently ranked in the AP Top 25, plus games with previously ranked Oklahoma and Louisville, he said the path to 10 wins looks “fairly remote.” Even so, he called it “a fun prospect to contemplate.”
The final question centered on the “Protecting College Sports Act,” the college sports “reform” bill that passed the U.S. Senate. Asked for his opinion, Mark made his position clear: he’s against it.
He said he does not believe the college sports hierarchy should be able to limit what athletes can earn through a salary-cap system unless that is negotiated directly with the athletes through collective bargaining. He also noted that while supporters say the bill does not restrict what athletes can make from “market-share NIL,” it leaves in place the current process for deciding whether those payments are legitimate “name, image and likeness payments.”
He added that if a local car dealer or a booster collective wants to pay players directly, he is still waiting for someone to explain who that hurts, saying “competitive balance” arguments do not persuade him.
Mark also objected to the bill’s “limited, statutory antitrust exemption” for the NCAA and conferences, which he said would make it harder for athletes to challenge pay restrictions and transfer limits in court. Given the NCAA’s history, he said, it is “the last entity in the United States that needs to be protected by an antitrust exemption.”
For those reasons, he called the PCSA a bad bill and said he hopes the U.S. House kills it.
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