Kentucky men’s basketball coach John Calipari is in line for a big payoff for allowing access to his program for last year’s Facebook Watch series "Inside the Madness: Kentucky Basketball.” USA Today sports financial reporter Steve Berkowitz reported the news Tuesday morning that Calipari will receive $1 million for the show. Caliarpi’s earnings for the show are headed to charity, he announced.

"In a perfect world, some of the money we made from the Facebook series would have been distributed to our players," Calipari said in the statement to USA Today. "Our rules simply won’t allow it. Instead, I’m proud of how they chose to allow themselves to be part of doing something that would make a difference in the lives of so many other people through charitable donations."

More than $600,000 of the money has been donated to at least eight non-profit organizations, USA Today reports. The list includes the Jimmy V Foundation and the Urban League of Lexington-Fayette County. An additional $141,000 went toward debt relief for 19 students in Kentucky’s College of Education.

The Wildcats made their way to the Sweet 16 before Kansas State knocked them out in Atlanta. Kentucky has eyes on a much deeper run this season, and it begins Thursday as the No. 2 team in the Midwest. Kentucky faces Abilene Christian in the first round, and would get the winner of Seton Hall and Wofford in the second round on Saturday.

“Let’s try to win six, but I’m telling you what we’re trying to do is beat Abilene right now,” Calipari said on Selection Sunday. “Abilene Christian shoots 40 percent from the three-point line. Figured we’d have somebody like that that’s going to be launching threes. Now all of a sudden, you’re going to have to play, and you’re going to have to guard threes, which means long rebounds, which gives them second chance opportunities.

“We’ve got to play that one. The next games, I’m not worried about them. It’s trying to keep these guys in the moment. And you know what? For me, a bunch of these … we’ve been starting four freshmen. And you know what? Those kids have all come together and are getting better and better. How this plays out, you don’t know. I mean, a year ago we had us and North Carolina in Memphis. Last year it was us and Kansas State. Both of those games, we had a chance to win and advance one more round.”

Calipari is a finalist for the Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year Award. Calipari is one of 25 coaches on the list that was announced Friday. He previously won the award in 2009 in his final season at Memphis. The recipient of the 2019 Jim Phelan award will be announced on April 5 at the College Insider Awards Event in Minneapolis, site of the 2019 Final Four.