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Long hired at Kansas, reduces UA buyout

Former Arkansas athletics director Jeff Long has been hired to the same position at Kansas, the university announced Thursday.

Long was fired as the Razorbacks' AD on Nov. 15, 2017, after a nearly 10-year tenure. He will be introduced at Kansas on July 11 and is set to officially start his new role on Aug. 1.

"Jeff Long has tremendous leadership and administrative experience in major college athletics, and he is a terrific fit for Kansas Athletics as we work to ensure our student-athletes succeed on the field and in the classroom,” Kansas chancellor Douglas A. Girod said in a statement. “Those who know him describe him as a man of character who cares deeply about higher education and the student-athletes he serves. For all these reasons, we are thrilled to welcome him to the University of Kansas.”

Prior to working at Arkansas, Long was the athletics director at Pittsburgh. He also held administrative roles at Oklahoma, Michigan, Virginia Tech, Eastern Kentucky and Rice and served as the first chairman of the College Football Playoff.

When he was fired, Long was due to receive a buyout of $1 million per year through the remainder of his contract, which totaled about $4.625 million.

A five-year deal from Kansas that will pay him $1.5 million annually is believed to offset that figure, though. HawgBeat's calculations have Arkansas paying Long $708,333 from the date of his firing to Aug. 1. That is just 15.3 percent of the total possible buyout.

That salary also makes him the second-highest paid athletics director in the Big 12, just behind Oklahoma's Joe Castiglione, according to USA Today's Dan Wolken.

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