It’s been a good summer for Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello — national champion in June, highest-paid head coach in college baseball in August.
The university announced today a five-year extension for Vitello that will take him through the 2029 season. It will pay him $3 million per year (doubling his annual salary), and he also gets a $250,000 signing bonus and a $200,000 bonus for winning the College World Series.
Vitello previously made $1.5 million a year, which ranked fifth in the SEC according to Front Office Sports.
Think we’ll let him stick around 😉
Head coach Tony Vitello has signed a 5-year contract extension through the 2029 season.
— Tennessee Baseball (@Vol_Baseball) August 23, 2024
He jumps past Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin, previously the highest-paid coach on the list at $2.45 million according to FOS. Jim Schlossnagle, whose Texas A&M team lost to the Vols in the College World Series Finals in Omaha, Neb., in June, is due to make $2.68 million in the third year of his new deal with Texas, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
Tennessee athletic director Danny White downplayed concern about losing Vitello on the field after the championship-clinching win, telling The Athletic: “I don’t think I’d have to even entertain that conversation. Tony knows what he’s built here and it’s special. It’s a relationship between him and his players and the program he’s built, and the fans, that you really can’t replace. Tennessee baseball is here to stay, and he’s the reason why.”
Moments later, winning pitcher Zander Sechrist said at his news conference: “I see Danny White back there, so I’m going to put it out there: I hope there’s a lifetime contract coming soon for coach Vitello.”
It’s not quite that, but Vitello is college baseball’s first $3 million coach after bringing Tennesssee its first national championship. He is 295-112 at UT with CWS trips in three of the past four seasons.
If Vitello leaves for another job, his buyout is $4 million through June 2025. It drops by a million in each of the next two years, then reduces to $800,000 through June 2028 and $400,000 in the last year of the deal.
Required reading
(Photo: Steven Branscombe / USA Today)
