Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello signed a five-year contract extension on Friday afternoon that makes him the highest paid coach in all of college baseball.
Vitello’s extension pays the eighth-year Tennessee head coach $3 million a year over the next five years. It’s a major commitment from Danny White and the University of Tennessee to Vitello and its baseball program, ensuring that the Vols will continue to be one of the nation’s top programs.
So what is there to know about Vitello’s new contract? Diving into it here.
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How Tony Vitello’s Pay Has Changed Over The Years
Tony Vitello arrived at a Tennessee when the athletic department didn’t take baseball particularly seriously after spending nearly a decade and a half in the gutter of the SEC. A successful assistant known for his recruiting prowess, Vitello was not some big name coach and Tennessee didn’t pay him like one.
Vitello’s initial contract at Tennessee is not currently available at Transparent UT. But according to KnoxNews reporting, Vitello signed a five-year contract that paid him an average of $493,000 a year.
Tennessee gave Vitello his first contract extension after he took the Vols to the NCAA Tournament in 2019, ending a 14-year drought for the program. That contract paid Vitello $580,000 in the 2020 season with $20,000 to $25,000 raises over the next four seasons.
But Vitello forced Tennessee’s hand again just two years later when he led Tennessee to the 2021 College World Series and made him one of the hottest commodities in the entire sport. Vitello signed a contract extension following the 2021 run to Omaha that nearly tripled his pay with a $1.5 million salary per year.
Three-years, four SEC Championships, two more trips to the College World Series and a National Championship later, Vitello gets a new extension that makes him the first $3 million coach in college baseball history. The salary is the same over the next five years.
How His Bonuses Change
The bonus structure of Vitello’s contract largely stays the same with the quantity increasing. Here’s how it works. There’s a list of eight potential achievements that Tennessee can reach each year. Those include: making the NCAA Tournament, hosting a Regional, winning the SEC Regular Season or Tournament Championship, making a Super Regional, hosting a Super Regional as a top eight seed, making the College World Series, making the College World Series Finals and winning the National Championship.
Depending on the greatest achievement that Tennessee accomplishes in any given season, Vitello will get one bonus to that amount. For instance— if Tennessee hosts a Super Regional and loses, Vitello gets an $120,000 bonus. If Tennessee makes the College World Series and loses before the final series, Vitello gets a $140,000 bonus.
These bonuses range between $40,000 for making the NCAA Tournament to $200,000 for winning the National Championship.
There used to be a baseline achievement of making the SEC Tournament but that stipulation was removed in Vitello’s latest contract.
One interesting note is that Tennessee worked the language of Vitello’s extension that the $200,000 bonus for winning the National Championship will apply to last season’s National Championship. Vitello’s bonus was previously $160,000 for winning the National Championship.
Vitello’s bonuses for team APR and coach of the year awards stayed the same as they were before.
Interesting Factoids About Vitello’s Contract Extension
There’s an interesting line in the first paragraph of Vitello’s contract extension. It states that this is an amended contract that was previously updated on June 19, 2019, July 21, 2021 and May 31, 2024.
That means Vitello already signed a contract extension at Tennessee before the season ended. Tennessee never made the public and did not update that contract to Transparent UT. So what does a National Championship and Texas A&M offering you a raise worth? We sadly do not know.
What we do know is that Vitello is in lockstep with Tennessee Director of Athletics. If White is no longer in his current position at Tennessee, Vitello’s buyout to leave for another job is cut in half. That buyout is currently $4 million, drops by one million the next two years and then by $1.2 million and $400,000 in the final two years of his contract.
Tennessee owes Vitello the remainder of his contract if they fire him without cause at any point, making the five-year, $15 million extension fully guaranteed.
Vitello is not only in rare air amongst college baseball coaches but baseball coaches at any level. Only 12 MLB managers make more money than Vitello.
What We Don’t Know
One thing that wasn’t updated in Vitello’s contract extension is what his salary pool for assistant coaches is. In the revised contract in 2021, there was a stipulation for a minimum of $900,000 yearly for his assistant coach pool.
In his statement about a contract extension, Vitello mentioned the importance of keeping his staff together and getting everything ironed out. A trusted source also told RTI that a big part of the new contract was Vitello making sure he could take care of his assistant coaching staff including associate head coach Josh Elander who is a candidate to become a SEC head coach in coming years.
But Vitello’s new contract does not spell out the details of what that increased assistant coach salary pool will look like.
Coaching continuity has been a constant under Vitello. His three-paid assistant coaches are the exact same as when he took the job seven years ago as is his strength and conditioning coach and video coordinator. Vitello has also added a number of support staff members that played for him at either Arkansas or Tennessee.
