Lexington, KY (My Sportsbook) - The University of Kentucky made it official on Wednesday and introduced John Calipari as its new men's basketball coach.

Calipari spent the past nine seasons at Memphis, but decided to leave a program he built into a national contender for one of the most prestigious and historic in college basketball annals.

"I'm humble and yet excited to lead this storied program," Calipari said at a Wednesday morning news conference.

While the prospect of taking the reins at a legendary school was probably the biggest lure for Calipari, the deal will make him the highest-paid coach in college basketball.

Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart said the eight-year deal will pay the coach $31.65 million with a base salary of $400,000 per year with the rest coming through media and television rights. Memphis will also receive a $200,000 buyout from Kentucky as part of the financial package.

"This decision for me was extremely hard," Calipari added. "It wasn't coming [to Kentucky]. This was easy. It was leaving Memphis. The support my family received there and the friends that we had to leave in Memphis...to walk away from that was very difficult."

Calipari was under contract with Memphis through the 2012-13 season after signing an extension following the Tigers' run to the national championship game last spring. During his tenure in Memphis, Calipari produced a record of 252-69, including a mark of 137-14 the past four years.

The Tigers have dominated the weak Conference USA recently and currently own a 61-game winning streak against league opponents. Moving to the SEC will be a big step up for Calipari, who also had a successful eight-year stint at Massachusetts in the Atlantic 10 Conference.

"This is pretty heady stuff for me. This is a dream for me," remarked Calipari. "To come here and have an opportunity to add to the wall [of championships]. They don't put any banners up except national championships."

Kentucky went 22-14 this past season and had its string of 17 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances snapped. The Wildcats, who had their first non-winning SEC season since 1988-89 with a mark of 8-8, advanced to the quarterfinals of the NIT but fell to Notre Dame, leading to Billy Gillispie's demise a few days later.

Gillispie lasted just two years at Kentucky after replacing Tubby Smith, and finished with a mark of 40-27.

"My goal is to make the entire commonwealth proud of this team," Calipari added. "I don't make a whole lot of promises, but we make commitments. I know how big this program is. This program is big because of the players that went through it. This program will be about players first."

Calipari has an overall collegiate coaching mark of 445-140. In addition to his success at Memphis, Calipari also won five A-10 titles with UMass and took the Minutemen to a Final Four in 1996, losing to eventual national champion Kentucky and Rick Pitino in the national semifinals.

Between UMass and Memphis, Calipari tested the waters of the NBA with the New Jersey Nets and posted a record of 72-112 with one playoff appearance before being fired in his third season with the team.