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Big coaches' salaries could now mean big tax payments for schools like Kentucky, Louisville

Earlier this summer, Mitch Barnhart balked at the rising cost of college athletics.

“We’re growing faster than we have in the past and a lot of that is things we can’t control,” the Kentucky athletics director said in an interview with the Herald-Leader.

He rattled off a list of logical culprits: “Travel expenses have become difficult (and the) cost of higher education has become significantly more.”

And then Barnhart mentioned one new operating expense that isn’t getting a lot of attention, but will cost the athletics department around $2.68 million this coming year.

“The excise tax that was levied in the new tax bill is big,” Barnhart said.