The University of Kentucky made a statement about its football program Friday by extending head coach Mark Stoops’ contract through the 2019 season just eight games into his second season on the job.

The university extended Stoops through 2018 last offseason after his first year in the Bluegrass, a dismal 2-10 campaign, including an 0-8 record in the SEC.

His newest extension is as bizarre as it is promising for the Kentucky program. Stoops will receive an obvious pay raise in terms of base salary, and he’ll also receive some wild incentives most other coaches wish they could sign for. Among those incentives is a $250,000 bonus per win beginning with Kentucky’s seventh victory in any given season, meaning a 10-win season would warrant Stoops a $1 million bonus.

But the strangest part of the new deal is the lack of a buyout clause to protect UK against the departure of one of the emerging coaches in the SEC. As it stands now, Stoops could walk away from Kentucky for a better job with as little as a note to athletic director Mitch Barnhart, which will leave Kentucky vulnerable if and when Stoops decides to move on to greener pastures.

Kentucky remains a basketball school, and John Calipari remains the proverbial king of the Bluegrass. Stoops is a popular figure in Kentucky in his own right, thanks in large part to his swift revitalization of the football program, but that revitalization is why Stoops is almost certain to be wooed from Kentucky down the line.

As far as other schools are concerned, if Stoops can lead an abysmal Kentucky program from ashes to a bowl berth in two years in the grueling SEC, he could do the same for a more promising program in even less time. Take a school like Michigan — Stoops isn’t likely to take the Michigan job, but similar jobs will continue to open up between now and 2019, and those programs will see Stoops as a candidate capable of rallying the program and its fan base in a short amount of time.

And from Stoops’ perspective, why not take the chance to make just as much money at a school where he’d be top dog? Kentucky loves Mark Stoops, as it should, but it’ll never love him like it loves Calipari. Schools that put football first, like the Michigan example above, would allow Stoops to be the Coach Cal of that state. He could be the guy, and it’s hard to turn down that type of opportunity for six years in a row.

There’s nothing holding Stoops back from taking a better job as soon as he feels it’s the right time. Again, there’s no reason to believe Stoops is leaving after this season or even next, but 2019 is a long way off and he could cut ties with UK on a moment’s notice due to the lack of a buyout clause in the contract.

At a press conference announcing the extension Friday afternoon, Stoops said he had no plans to leave Kentucky, and as of today fans should believe him. But there’s no guarantee he’ll say the same in 2016 or in 2018, and the moment he has a change of heart he can leave without any financial burden.

Barnhart said Friday the deal was meant to show Kentucky’s loyalty to Stoops:

Those comments seem to lead on that this extension was more about maintaining Stoops amid the onslaught of jobs at premier programs opening this offseason, but the timing is curious. Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon resigned Friday, leaving the school one step closer to firing Brady Hoke, and Florida plays SEC East leader Georgia. The Wolverines and Gators are likely to fire Hoke and Muschamp by season’s end, perhaps even by Monday.

Other power programs are sure to do the same in the next year or two just as schools like Texas, USC and Tennessee did in the last two years.

Stoops would be an appareling name at all of those schools. Among the SEC’s three second-year head coaches — Stoops, Tennessee’s Butch Jones and Arkansas’ Bret Bielema — only Stoops has an SEC victory this season (he has two and counting). The Cats may not expect to actually keep Stoops all the way to 2019, but the timing and nature of the new extension makes it seem as though they were most concerned with keeping him through at least 2016 when his first recruiting class will be seniors.

But even after the 2016 season, wouldn’t Kentucky like some compensation for its program’s savior walking away? Just look at what’s happened to Vanderbilt since James Franklin left the program; it’s gone from back to back nine-win seasons to a team just hoping to win a third game sometime this season. If Kentucky stands to take a similar fall from grace once Stoops leaves, don’t you think it should try and get some money back on its investment?

As the deal stands now, Kentucky won’t get a dime in return; instead it’ll be left hanging out to dry.

So while the Cats just got stronger, they also became more vulnerable.