Danny White tops $3 million in pay, remains highest paid AD

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Freak

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White’s contract allows a maximum of $600,000 in bonuses within an academic year. He exceeded that mark with incentives totaling $632,500 in 2024-25.
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White’s pay for the past year totaled $3.35 million, including $2.75 million in base salary and $600,000 in bonuses. He remains the highest-paid athletics director at a public university in the country, based on documents obtained by USA TODAY Network.
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Here are White’s bonuses for 2024-25, but he can only receive the maximum of $600,000:

  • $247,500 (9% of base salary) for Learfield Cup top 10 finish
  • $137,500 (5%) for Academic Progress Rate high score
  • $82,500 (3%) for football making College Football Playoff
  • $82,500 (3%) for men’s basketball reaching Sweet 16 (no additional bonus for reaching Elite 8)
  • $82,500 (3%) for women’s basketball reaching Sweet 16
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www.knoxnews.com

How Danny White maxed out bonus earnings with Tennessee to top $3 million in pay

A year ago, Tennessee AD Danny White had his bonus cap doubled. Now he's cashing in with $600,000 in incentives. Here's his bonus breakdown.
www.knoxnews.com
 
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#8
#8
lol, I don't really mind the "oh pay him everything, he's worth it" mentality much considering what else is going on in the sport, but I'm incredibly amused by how easily people can spend other people's money.

And it's even more entertaining when you realize it's actually not other people's money - all of us will be paying for that pay increase. Every dollar comes from us. Either through our money, or through more ways the school finds to sell access to us. More commercials, more ads, more logos on the jerseys, more logos on the playing surfaces, and so on. Ah well.
 
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#10
One aspect that I find interesting is that the industry standard is for the Head Football Coach and, in many cases, other coaches at the school to have a higher(often significantly) salary than their boss does.
 
#11
#11
Voltopia said:
lol, I don't really mind the "oh pay him everything, he's worth it" mentality much considering what else is going on in the sport, but I'm incredibly amused by how easily people can spend other people's money.

And it's even more entertaining when you realize it's actually not other people's money - all of us will be paying for that pay increase. Every dollar comes from us. Either through our money, or through more ways the school finds to sell access to us. More commercials, more ads, more logos on the jerseys, more logos on the playing surfaces, and so on. Ah well.
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I would rather watch more Ads in a win over Bama than no ads in a loss.
 
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#13
#13
Voltopia said:
lol, I don't really mind the "oh pay him everything, he's worth it" mentality much considering what else is going on in the sport, but I'm incredibly amused by how easily people can spend other people's money.

And it's even more entertaining when you realize it's actually not other people's money - all of us will be paying for that pay increase. Every dollar comes from us. Either through our money, or through more ways the school finds to sell access to us. More commercials, more ads, more logos on the jerseys, more logos on the playing surfaces, and so on. Ah well.
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If you don't feel like it's worth it, there's a host of channels waiting for you on your remote, a host of other things to do, etc.

Guess what: you have to pay to have good things. Sure, you can promote your last head coach to AD and see what happens...... wait .... yeah..... we did that and it sucked.

You can get your furniture off the side of the road and your mattress too but if you want nice stuff, you pay for it.

You act as though this is an odd concept in life.
 
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#15
#15
dduncan4163 said:
He's worth every cent. The man resurrected our Football, Baseball, and Womens Basketball program from the grave and he stood up to the NCAA kicked their ass. He's the best AD in America hands down
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Tony Vitello resurrected the baseball program. People need to put some respect on that man’s name. With that being said, Danny White is the best AD we’ve had in several decades, could be mentioned as the best we’ve ever had.
 
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#17
#17
SayUWantAreVOLution said:
If you don't feel like it's worth it, there's a host of channels waiting for you on your remote, a host of other things to do, etc.

Guess what: you have to pay to have good things. Sure, you can promote your last head coach to AD and see what happens...... wait .... yeah..... we did that and it sucked.

You can get your furniture off the side of the road and your mattress too but if you want nice stuff, you pay for it.

You act as though this is an odd concept in life.
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No, no I don't. But whatever. If people are fine with ads on the field, more fees on the tickets, more commercials in the stadium, sponsor logos all over the jerseys, so be it. It certainly feels like it's coming, regardless of how anyone feels. As I was saying. That money will come from us. One way or another, every penny. Wait. Pennies are gone now. Nickels. Every nickel.

Though that said, the "if you don't like it then there's the door" isn't really much to think on. If accepting or supporting every decision the power brokers make about college athletics is a requirement to participate here or even just watch the games, then I don't know what to say to that.
 
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#18
#18
Voltopia said:
No, no I don't. But whatever. If people are fine with ads on the field, more fees on the tickets, more commercials in the stadium, sponsor logos all over the jerseys, so be it. It certainly feels like it's coming, regardless of how anyone feels. As I was saying. That money will come from us. One way or another, every penny. Wait. Pennies are gone now. Nickels. Every nickel.

Though that said, the "if you don't like it then there's the door" isn't really much to think on. If accepting or supporting every decision the power brokers make about college athletics is a requirement to participate here or even just watch the games, then I don't know what to say to that.
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It's anything in life. You sound a bit like the guy who goes in the Lexus dealership looking at cars and then says "why would I pay 40,000 dollars for one of these when I can get a 2007 Corolla for about 4,000 dollars."

Good things cost good money. Life is just that way.

Danny White is extremely good at his job, very possibly the best AD in the country. Keeping him at the head of the UT Athletic Department is very possibly the most important thing we need to do to continue our athletic success. Even if you're me and would prefer to see UT get out of the pro athletics business, losing Danny White from that business would be a huge blunder no matter who the Board of Directors or Trustees or whatever is.

And I expect to pay my share to keep him because I enjoy the business he heads and runs with extreme success. Doing my share is what I think is right. YMMV.
 
#19
#19
Voltopia said:
No, no I don't. But whatever. If people are fine with ads on the field, more fees on the tickets, more commercials in the stadium, sponsor logos all over the jerseys, so be it. It certainly feels like it's coming, regardless of how anyone feels. As I was saying. That money will come from us. One way or another, every penny. Wait. Pennies are gone now. Nickels. Every nickel.

Though that said, the "if you don't like it then there's the door" isn't really much to think on. If accepting or supporting every decision the power brokers make about college athletics is a requirement to participate here or even just watch the games, then I don't know what to say to that.
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c388bc52-efdb-4673-bfec-c9036a606dc4_text.gif
 
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#22
#22
Voltopia said:
View attachment 752396
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I do agree with you though.......our stadiums / jerseys are all going to have logos and sponsors galore soon. Just like world soccer teams, NASCAR, etc.......college football is a massive cash cow for the elites now and not just the schools, as was when i was growing up. I heard a podcast the other day in fact of a billionaire talking about he and other fellow colleagues talking to schools about purchasing them and /or having a financial stake in them
 
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#23
#23
NATHAN05 said:
I do agree with you though.......our stadiums / jerseys are all going to have logos and sponsors galore soon. Just like world soccer teams, NASCAR, etc.......college football is a massive cash cow for the elites now and not just the schools, as was when i was growing up. I heard a podcast the other day in fact of a billionaire talking about he and other fellow colleagues talking to schools about purchasing them and /or having a financial stake in them
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Agreed about where it's going. Now that the schools have fully opened themselves up to monetization, the value of their brands is skyrocketing. Built in history with regions and states, going back over a hundred years, with baked in loyalty from generations of families and alumni. And in this modern era of absolute commercial saturation, there's nothing else out there that compares to these school brands. Untouched to a great degree for a century, now open for business. Everyone wants a piece. And few will care too greatly about what it took to get it.

I've held the opinion, and always have, that a lot of this wasn't hard or magical. I think there's a lot of ADs who could have set funding records had they had a free hand. But the schools just held back from really cutting loose. There was a sense of decorum, a sense of standard amongst the schools. Even when they first sued to get the freedom for their own TV deals, there was still a sense of obligation to behave as educational institutions.

No longer now though. It's all dollars on deck now. The fact private equity has been sniffing around some of the mid-tier conferences these past few years - and the conferences have shown some degree of receptiveness - is a sign of what's to come. Somewhere out there is a clock ticking down to the Saudi soverign wealth fund owning a college program. Only a matter of time.
 
#24
#24
Voltopia said:
No, no I don't. But whatever. If people are fine with ads on the field, more fees on the tickets, more commercials in the stadium, sponsor logos all over the jerseys, so be it. It certainly feels like it's coming, regardless of how anyone feels. As I was saying. That money will come from us. One way or another, every penny. Wait. Pennies are gone now. Nickels. Every nickel.

Though that said, the "if you don't like it then there's the door" isn't really much to think on. If accepting or supporting every decision the power brokers make about college athletics is a requirement to participate here or even just watch the games, then I don't know what to say to that.
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I’ll never fully forgive “Thompson-Boling Arena at the Food City Center” being a thing now

I ignore the Food City Center part just like everybody else, but it’s still just a shameless, unnecessary advert that makes me cringe. I don’t understand why by some of our fans defend choices like that, you don’t need to defend commercialization just because the program you like is doing it.
 
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