Tennessee has amended athletic director Danny White's contract to give him a pay raise, making him the highest-paid athletic director in the SEC.
Under the new terms of the agreement in an amended contract, White will now have an annual base salary of $2.75 million. His contract remains a six-year, renewable contract through July 2030.
The contract's incentive structure allows him to earn more, as he can earn up to $600,000, a maximum that was raised from $300,000. His access to private flights also increases from six to “ten occupied one-way flights.”
White’s base salary increases from $2.2 million, putting him at the top of the new 16-team SEC. Texas’ Chris Del Conte is scheduled to make $2.32 million in fiscal 2025. (His figure also increases with bonuses.)
White has helped resurrect Tennessee from the depths of football ineptitude, leadership incompetence and hot-button NCAA issues. His most important decision was hiring football coach Josh Heupel, who brought energy and winning back to the Vols' program. That helped turn Tennessee into a winner on the field and propel the athletic department to skyrocketing revenue and fundraising.
“When Danny says that he and his team of exceptional athletic administrators and coaches are working to build the best athletic department in the country, that's not just empty talk,” Tennessee Chancellor Donde Plowman said in a statement. “Danny is a visionary, a leader in our conference and across the country, and he focuses every day on creating the best experiences for our student-athletes, our fans and our athletic department. That focus and commitment is producing extraordinary results across all sports.”
Since being hired in 2021, the athletics department has grown to the point where last year it experienced the best overall year in athletics in school history. That included a national title in baseball and the school’s highest placing, No. 3, in the Learfield Principal’s Cup that measures the department’s overall success.
Tennessee was one of only two schools from power conferences to send all of its programs to the postseason in 2023-24. The Vols’ baseball championship was the athletic department’s first national title since 2009. Tennessee has also won three consecutive SEC sports trophies.
White came to Tennessee from UCF in 2021 and arrived with a reputation for bold leadership. He had earned attention and scrutiny for boasting a national football title for UCF in 2017 and helped fuel that school’s rise to a power conference program that eventually joined the Big 12.
He arrived at Tennessee as the school was reeling from the disastrous hiring of former coach Phil Fulmer as athletic director, a botched decision after a failed coaching search that resulted in Jeremy Pruitt. Pruitt’s hiring left Tennessee on probation and facing an $8 million fine from the NCAA, and a program that went 3-7 in 2020 and operated under the cloud of scandal.
White ably guided Tennessee through NCAA troubles, which notably included not being banned from postseason play despite allegations of 18 Level I violations.
“We have phenomenal leadership at the University of Tennessee, from our chancellor, my boss Donde Plowman, to our UT System President Randy Boyd and our board chair John Compton,” White said in a statement. “I am grateful for the opportunity to serve such a rising institution with talented and caring people around me. Our student-athletes, coaches and staff are inspired to be a part of something bigger than themselves, fueled by the best fan base in sports. Together we have the opportunity to build something extraordinary at Rocky Top. I believe the momentum we have built in our early years is just the beginning of a much deeper story.”
White is the son of former Duke and Notre Dame athletic director Kevin White, and his brother, Brian, is the athletic director at Florida Atlantic. Another brother, Mike, is Georgia's basketball coach.
