A day after announcing a new long-term extension and school-record-setting salary for football coach Josh Heupel, the University of Tennessee also is moving forward with a new deal for athletics director Danny White.
In fact, UT officials inked White – hired in mid-January 2021 to replace the ousted Phillip Fulmer as the school’s director of athletics – to his new deal some two months before it locked down Heupel with an extension that pays Heupel some $9 million per year.
Per White’s new contract amendment with Tennessee, he will receive an annual salary of $2.2 million and always carry a rolling six-year term; both the salary and the additional year are increases to White’s previously amended contract, which already was modified in spring 2022.
Additionally, White’s new deal carries with it an annually guaranteed six-figure raise; White per the new amended deal will receive an initial raise of at least $110,000 on its rollover date in 2023, and the Notre Dame graduate and former Central Florida leader is set for compounding 5-percent increases in perpetuity for the life of the deal.
Perhaps most interesting in White’s new deal is a clause that further tethers together UT’s top leadership in Knoxville, with White having a carve-out in his deal that directly relates to UT Chancellor Donde Plowman’s tenure on Rocky Top.
The new clause, which stipulates White owes a full year’s base salary – at least $2.2 million and climbing forthwith -- states:
“If White terminates his employment without cause at any time during the Term, including all Rollover Dates or other extensions, renewals, or amendments, then White ( or a third party on White's behalf) shall pay the University a separation payment ("White Separation Payment") in an amount equal to one (1) year of the Base Pay in effect on the date that White terminates his employment without cause. Notwithstanding anything in this Section 10.2 to the contrary, because stability and alignment in the leadership of the University is critical to the success of the University's athletics program, if Donde Plowman is not employed as the chancellor of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville on the date that White terminates his employment without cause, then the White Separation Payment shall be the amount equal to fifty percent (50%) of one (1) year of the Base Pay in effect on the date that White terminates his employment without cause. Payment of the White Separation Payment shall be paid to the University before the last day of the month following the month in which White gave notice he was terminating his employment.”
This component is noteworthy because right now on Rocky Top, the school's four most high-profile coaches -- Heupel in football, Rick Barnes in men's basketball, Kelly Harper in women's basketball and Tony Vitello in baseball -- all were hired by different athletics directors. Dave Hart hired Barnes, who has guided Tennessee to program-record heights on the hardwood while John Currie hired record-setting baseball coach Vitello.
White’s bonus structure, per the modified contract, does not change. So as noted by Ross Dellenger of Sports Illustrated, Tennessee’s six Southeastern Conference championships in various sports since White was hired 24 months ago means that White qualifies for the 1-percent bonuses to his salary for those championships.
Also, White has qualified for a 6-percent bonus – another six-figure boost – for Tennessee’s overall athletics performance in the most recent College Directors’ Cup standings, where Tennessee finished 11th nationally. White just missed out an 8-percent bonus when Arkansas edged the Vols for 10th place in the standings by 26 points.