SEC baseball: Who is league's highest-paid coach? Who makes the least? A look at all 14 salaries
SEC baseball is growing financially as TV contracts are met with an increased interest in the sport. For athletics directors, that means their checkbooks are opening wider for coaches.
Base salaries of SEC coaches are rising. Between the 14 schools, more than $14 million are dished out for the current fiscal year to baseball coaches, according to records obtained by the USA TODAY Sports Network.
But that doesn’t mean every school's return on investment is equal.
For a school such as Georgia paying Scott Stricklin $650,000 – fifth-lowest in the SEC – being a two seed in the Chapel Hill Regional is worth the price. However, Ole Miss paying Mike Bianco $1.2 million after squeaking in as the final team in the field puts pressure on the coach to deliver an unexpected run.
Across the Magnolia State, Mississippi State saw its season end without an appearance in the SEC Tournament. Chris Lemonis ($1.25 million) is the fifth-highest paid coach after an extension and raise last July. But that came after a national championship, perhaps giving some leeway with what he cost MSU this season.
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A plethora of schools in this weekend's NCAA regional field will be hoping major investments pay off – starting with the title favorites.
Tennessee is paying Tony Vitello $1.5 million, second only to Vanderbilt’s Tim Corbin who earned $1.668 million in 2020. For a program without a national championship, the expectation as the No. 1 overall seed to win is met by financial pressure.
The bigger deals aren’t only going to tenured coaches such as Corbin. First-year coaches Jim Schlossnagle ($1.41 million at Texas A&M) and Jay Johnson ($1.2 million at LSU) are giving their programs immediate returns.
The former led the Aggies to an SEC West title a year after they went 9-21 in conference play while the latter has the Tigers as a two seed in Southern Mississippi’s regional.
It comes as little surprise the teams consistently at the bottom of the conference are also the teams paying coaches the least. Missouri, Alabama and Kentucky combine to pay coaches $1.52 million.
2022 base salaries for SEC coaches
Vanderbilt’s Tim Corbin: $1.668 million. This figure is from the private school’s most recently available federal tax return, which provided compensation for the 2020 calendar year based on all income paid by the school or support organizations, including benefits, perks and performance bonuses.
Tennessee’s Tony Vitello: $1.5 million
Texas A&M’s Jim Schlossnagle: $1.41 million. Not included is the $195,000 signing bonus Schlossnage earned and the $170,000 he’ll get if he’s still the head coach come September.
Arkansas’ Dave Van Horn: $1.3 million
Mississippi State’s Chris Lemonis: $1.25 million. Lemonis receives his base salary under a state contract, plus compensation from contract with the Bulldog Club, Inc., a private non-profit organization that declined to release the agreement. The university provided summary of his compensation.
Ole Miss: $1.2 million. Bianco receives his base salary under a state contract, plus compensation from a contract with the Ole Miss Athletics Foundation, a private non-profit organization that declined to release the agreement. The university provided a summary of his compensation.
LSU’s Jay Johnson: $1.2 million
Florida’s Kevin O’Sullivan: $1.2 million
Auburn’s Butch Thompson: $1 million
Georgia’s Scott Stricklin: $650,000
South Carolina’s Mark Kingston: $600,000
Kentucky’s Nick Mingione: $575,000
Alabama’s Brad Bohannon: $475,000
Missouri’s Steve Bieser: $470,000
USA TODAY sports protects reporter and editor Steve Berkowitz contributed to this report.
Stefan Krajisnik is the Mississippi State beat writer for the Clarion Ledger. Contact him at skrajisnik@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter @skrajisnik3.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: SEC baseball coach salaries 2022: Who is the league's highest-paid?
