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Chris Low, ESPN Senior Writer
Tennessee’s Tony Vitello, who was awarded the largest contract in college baseball history, said he wants to continue his ascent from his historic 2024 national championship season.
“Right now, we literally have facts that we can show recruiters and other people that we’re as committed to baseball as you can imagine,” Vitello told ESPN on Friday. “As far as the coaching staff, the administration and (athletic director) Danny White have given me peace of mind that there is nothing better in terms of support or investment.
Vitello’s new deal, announced earlier by the university, will pay $3 million annually and run through the 2029 season. His annual salary will be among the 10 highest paid managers in Major League Baseball, according to MLB insiders.
The deal also includes an expanded salary pool for assistants and support staff, replacing what Tennessee and Vitello agreed to effective May 31, though the deal was never announced. Vitello was previously set to make $1.8 million annually. He collected a $200,000 bonus for winning Tennessee’s first baseball national championship this season.
Since arriving in Knoxville in 2018, Vitello has transformed Tennessee into a baseball powerhouse. The Vols became the first SEC team in history to win 60 games this season en route to capturing the national title with a 6-5 victory over Texas A&M in the deciding game.
Vitello has taken Tennessee to the Men’s College World Series in three of the past four seasons and to the super regionals all four seasons. During that span, Tennessee ranked first nationally with 211 wins and a .773 winning percentage.
“It’s a never-ending process, especially if you include facilities and you include recruiting, but also just trying to survive in the SEC, which everyone who has been a part of or just watched from the outside knows how challenging it is,” said Vitello. “So I don’t feel like we’re nearly done climbing in a lot of categories, even though we’ve been successful in the postseason this year.
“The good thing about what people are saying now is that I feel like our staff has been rewarded for our loyalty. At some point, I think college baseball, and I say this humbly, but college baseball has gotten a lot more attention in the last couple of years. .
Under the terms of Vitello’s deal, he will owe the university $4 million if he leaves for another job before June 30, 2025. The buyout drops to $3 million in 2026, $2 million in 2027 and up to $400,000 in the final year. contract in 2029. If Tennessee fires Vitello without cause during the term of the deal, he will owe the remainder of the contract.
Also, if White is no longer Tennessee’s AD, Vitello’s buyout will be cut in half if he leaves for another job. When Vitello was hired in 2018, his original contract paid him a base salary of $493,000 per year. He has taken the Vols to five NCAA tournaments and won two of the past three SEC tournaments. He is the No. 1 overall pick to win a national title this season since Miami in 1999. Tennessee had four players selected in the first two rounds of this year’s MLB draft, a program record, and two went in the first round — Christian Moore and Blake Burke.
Tennessee’s success in Vitello has been a big hit with fans. Record crowds have flocked to Lindsey Nelson Stadium, which is undergoing a $98.5 million multiyear renovation project that will increase seating capacity to around 8,000 and include private suites, added premium seating options, expanded concourse space and a new concourse connecting the left-field concourse. to the right field student area.
“At first, people started coming out in droves and then they started storming to where we had ‘The Legend of Lindsey Nelson’ with the students,” Vitello said. “The outfield porch becomes a party, and it becomes very powerful in that environment, like a rock ‘n’ roll concert. The demand for seats is crazy, so climbing can be seen as a visual and one. things that are more fun and cooler that we see as coaches and players.
Other schools have aggressively pursued Vitello in recent years, including Texas A&M in 2021 and again this year after Jim Schlossnagle left for Texas. Schlossnagle’s contract in Texas will pay him an average annual salary of $2.2 million. Tim Corbin from Vanderbilt earns $2 million a year. Vitello became the first $3 million college baseball coach.
“I’d be lying if I didn’t say there’s a lot of ambitious guys you could add to your first coaching staff and not get a lot on the field,” Vitello said. “We’re bitter and we want to work, and there’s an underlying question: ‘Is this a place where we can succeed?’ We always think after 2019 that we can put together enough pieces of the puzzle to advance in the region and maybe in 2021, it is very clear for us because of the support of the fans and because of what the administration has done for us, that is the formula abide.
“So why would we be looking anywhere?”
