Tennessee announced an extension and raise for Director of Athletics Danny White on Thursday morning that’s expected to make him the highest paid athletic director in the SEC.
It’s a well deserved raise for White who is entering his fourth full academic year as the leader of Tennessee’s athletic department. Under Whiter’s leadership, Tennessee athletics are in the midst of a run of success that is unprecedented on the Hill.
Taking a look at the success of the Tennessee athletic department here.
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Top-To-Bottom Success In Athletic Department
Tennessee’s front facing, revenue creating sports have been successful in recent seasons but the athletic department is having success top-to-bottom. White took over in January of 2021 meaning that he’s been the Director of Athletics for three full calendar years.
In those three years, Tennessee has won three straight SEC All-Sports titles. The Vols finished first in men’s sports all three seasons, first in women’s sports in 2022-23 and second in women’s sports in 2021-22 and 2023-24.
That success has translated to the Learfield Director’s Cup which is an all-sports competition between all division one schools. Tennessee finished No. 13 for the 2021-22 academic year and are steadily climbing with a No. 6 finish in 2022-23 and a best-ever No. 3 finish for this past year.
Consistent SEC Championships
In the four years before Danny White took over, Tennessee’s athletic department combined to win just two SEC Championships. In the last three and a half years, Tennessee’s won 12 total SEC Championships including five regular season titles and seven tournament titles.
Tennessee’s won four conference titles in baseball (regular season and tournament in both ’22 and ’24), three softball titles (regular season in ’23 and ’24, tournament in ’23), two men’s basketball titles (regular season in ’24 and tournament in ’22) and one title in soccer (’21 tournament), women’s swim and dive (’22 tournament) and men’s tennis (’21 tournament).
While White didn’t hire any of those coaches— in fact soccer coach Brian Pensky left the following year to coach at Florida State— all of the program’s have found an extra gear under White’s leadership.
NCAA Tournament Success
Tennessee isn’t collecting as many National Championships as SEC Championships but that doesn’t mean that the athletic department is lacking postseason success.
The men’s basketball program followed up a run to the Sweet 16 during the 2022-23 season with its second ever trip to the Elite Eight a season ago.
Tennessee’s men’s tennis program has made runs to the Sweet 16 each of the last four years including trips to the National Semifinals in both 2021 and 2022. The women’s tennis program made the National Semifinals this past season for just the second time in program history.
On the course, Tennessee men’s golf’s 10th place finish at the NCAA Championships last season was its best since 1981 as Brennan Webb’s program continues to steady improve.
Tennessee volleyball’s run to the Sweet 16 last season was its deepest since the program made the Final Four during the 2005 season.
Tennessee softball followed up SEC Regular-Season and Tournament championships with a trip to the Women’s College World Series in 2023.
But Tennessee baseball has been the epitome of postseason success. The Vols made trips to the College World Series in both 2021 and 2023 before winning their first ever National Championship this summer. While Tennessee athletics was having consistent success, Tony Vitello’s program getting Tennessee over the top with a National Championship is the banner moment of the last decade of Tennessee sports.
Healthy Football Program
The thing about intercollegiate athletics is that no matter how good your athletic department is, if the football program is struggling then people aren’t going to be satisfied.
But entering Josh Heupel’s fourth season as head coach, the football program is healthier than it’s been in nearly two decades. While White didn’t hire most the coaches having success at Tennessee, he made the most important hire on campus.
White and Heupel inherited an absolute mess of a football program that compounded a decade-plus of failures with a NCAA investigation.
But thanks to a resurgent 2022 season and the closure of the investigation, Tennessee’s program Is moving in the right direction as we begin this new stage of college sports. Heupel enters his fourth season as head coach with a 27-12 (14-10 SEC) record.
