FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas basketball is hiring John Calipari as its next head coach.

It reads like an unfathomable statement, but the Razorbacks have lured the former national champion away from Kentucky. The school officially announced the hire Wednesday after ESPN's Pete Thamel reported Sunday night that the two sides had agreed on a contract.

Calipari will succeed Eric Musselman, who accepted the head coaching job with Southern Cal on Wednesday.

According to an Arkansas spokesperson, Calipari will have a base salary of $7 million. The contract runs through 2029 with a maximum of two automatic rollover years for NCAA Tournament appearances that would extend the contract to 2031. The deal includes a $1 million signing bonus and features retention bonuses of $500,000 each year of the contract, along with one-time bonuses for making the NCAA Tournament, reaching the second round, Sweet 16, Final Four and winning a national championship.

Calipari has been under heavy heat from the Wildcats’ fan base after another early exit in the NCAA Tournament. Kentucky lost to 14-seed Oakland in the first round of this year’s March Madness, and the Wildcats have not advanced to the second weekend since 2019. Kentucky athletics director Mitch Barnhart announced Calipari would return for next season on March 26.

"This is what I want. This is what I wanted," Calipari said during his radio show after the endorsement from his athletics director.

"This is why I never left. And now let’s come together and let’s go do something special. We can do it. We’ve done it. Let’s do it again.”

In the end, Calipari changed his mind and opted to leave the Bluegrass State.

More: COLUMN: Eric Musselman's departure leaves Arkansas basketball searching for long-term leader

More: Arkansas basketball transfer portal tracker 2024: Who is joining, leaving the Razorbacks

Calipari, 65, has been to six Final Fours and been named Naismith College Coach of the year three times. He lifted his only national championship trophy in 2012 with a Wildcats team led by Anthony Davis. He was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015 and has an 813-260 record in 32 seasons as a college head coach.

In 15 seasons at Kentucky, Calipari won six SEC regular-season titles with an overall record of 410-122. No team in the NCAA Tournament has more wins (32), Final Fours (four), Elite Eights (seven) or Sweet 16s (eight) than Kentucky since Calipari’s arrival. He went 16-9 against Arkansas.

He is regarded as one of the best recruiters in college basketball history, having recruited and helped 58 of his collegiate players become NBA draft picks. Kentucky’s 2024 class ranks second in the country with four signees ranking as five-star recruits.

Before his arrival in Lexington, Calipari spent 17 combined seasons at UMass and Memphis, taking both schools to a Final Four. He was the national runner-up at Memphis in 2008.

In between, Calipari spent four seasons as a head coach and an assistant in the NBA.

Calipari will arrive in Fayetteville with an empty cupboard. Arkansas zero returnees and zero commits in the class of 2024. Eight Razorbacks have entered the transfer portal, and Trevon Brazile declared for the NBA Draft Monday.

Arkansas is coming off a 16-17 campaign that represented the first losing season of Musselman's collegiate coaching career. It's also the first time Arkansas finished under .500 since 2010.

According to a database compiled by USA TODAY Sports, Calipari was making $8.5 million annually with the Wildcats. However, there is no buyout in his contract that Arkansas needs to pay.

This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: Arkansas basketball to hire John Calipari as next head coach