Danny White has gone cheap with all of his hires as the Tennessee Vols athletics director. However, UT is no longer going cheap with him. The school announced Thursday it would extend his contract through 2030 with $2.75 million annual salary.
With that extension and raise, White is now the highest-paid athletics director in the SEC and the highest paid among public colleges in the nation. However, if you just judged him based on the success of his hires, this would make no sense.
Josh Heupel for Tennessee Football is White’s signature hire, and while he has had success, he hasn’t won any championships. White’s other signature hire is Lady Vols women’s basketball head coach Kim Caldwell, but she hasn’t yet coached a game for the program.
The two most successful sports under White have been men’s basketball and baseball, the latter of which won the national championship. Dave Hart hired Rick Barnes, though, and John Currie hire Tony Vitello. That’s hardly a selling point for White.
It’s not like White is doing what Scott Woodward did with the LSU Tigers, as he hired the baseball coach and women’s basketball coach who won national championships. White has yet to hire a coach who has won a national title with UT.
So why is White deserving of this money?
Well, this answer is three-fold. For starters, the most obvious reason is he saved the football program. White took over a program in shambles and made an unsexy hire to replace Jeremy Pruitt when he just brought Josh Heupel with him from the UCF Knights. Now, though, everybody loves it.
Obviously, that fueled White’s already-elite reputation of a hirer. Considering the circumstances of what he took over, you can’t judge him on the scale of Woodward or somebody like that. UT was in absolute crisis when they hired him, and they no longer are.
Secondly, though, White has been at the forefront of the Tennessee Vols navigating the changing ways of college athletics. He established the largest NIL collective in Spyre Sports, helped UT avoid probation for the scandals under Jeremy Pruitt and took on the NCAA and won.
Finally, though, there is the fundraising side. Yes, it’s tied to NIL, but for over a decade, the Tennessee Vols operated on a much smaller budget than other prominent schools in the SEC. Whether or not you agree with it, the Neyland Entertainment District and Pilot partnership are giant sources of funding for UT.
To a lesser degree, understanding the tradition of the Tennessee Vols on a deeper level than anybody has been a huge selling point for White. He restored the V-O-L-S logos and “Home of the Vols” signs at Neyland Stadium, and he put up statues of trailblazing African American players for the school.
Asked about these moves, White noted that UT’s tradition has always been breaking tradition, and he has struck that perfect balance. Simply put, despite being relatively new to the university, White has adequately learned what the university is all about.
Taking this into account, Chancellor Donde Plowman clearly understands what White has done for the school off the field. On the field is impressive, but the combination of what he inherited and what he has produced for the Tennessee Vols warrants his new contract.
