Tennessee’s Danny White makes the SEC’s highest-paid AD

Tennessee amended athletic director Danny White’s contract to give him a raise that would make him the highest-paid athletic director in the SEC.

Under the new terms of the deal in a revised contract, White will jump to an annual base salary of $2.75 million. His contract is a six-year, rolling contract that runs until July 2030.

The contract’s incentive structure allows him to earn more, as he can earn up to $600,000, up from a maximum of $300,000. His personal flight access also increased from six to “ten one-way occupied flights”.

White’s base salary increased from $2.2 million and pushed him above the new 16-team SEC. Chris Del Conte of Texas will make $2.32 million in fiscal year 2025. (His number also increases with bonuses.)

White helped revive Tennessee from the depths of football ineptitude, leadership incompetence and NCAA problems. His most important move was hiring football coach Josh Heupel, who brought energy and success to the Vols’ program. This helped the battleship Tennessee to win on the field and the athletic department to quickly scramble for revenue and fundraising.

“When Danny says he and his team of exceptional athletics administrators and coaches are working to build the best athletics department in the country, it’s not just talk,” Tennessee Chancellor Donde Plowman said in a statement. “Danny is visionary — a leader in our conference and across the country — and focuses every day on creating the best possible experience for our student-athletes, our fans and our athletics department. That focus and commitment is yielding tremendous results everywhere. All sports.”

Since White was hired in 2021, the athletic department has built on what it experienced to be the best overall year in athletics in school history last year. That includes a baseball national title and the school’s highest finish, No. 3, in the Learfield Directors’ Cup, which measures overall division success.

Tennessee was one of only two power conference schools to send every program to the postseason in 2023-24. The Vols’ baseball championship is the athletic department’s first national title since 2009.

White came to Tennessee from UCF in 2021 and brought a reputation for bold leadership. He earned the attention and scrutiny that led UCF to a national title in football in 2017 and helped the school’s rise to a power conference program that eventually joined the Big 12.

He arrived at Tennessee with the school reeling from the disastrous hire of former coach Phil Fulmer as athletic director, a failed move after a coaching search that yielded Jeremy Pruitt. The Pruitt hire 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 a cloud of scandal.

White deftly led Tennessee through NCAA problems, which notably included a postseason ban despite being charged with 18 Level I violations.

“We have tremendous 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’m grateful for the opportunity to serve at such an upwardly mobile institution with talented, supportive people around me. Our student-athletes, coaches and staff are inspired to be a part of something bigger than themselves – the foundation of the best fan-driven sports we can create together at Rocky Top.” Given the opportunity I believe the momentum we’ve built in our first few years is the beginning of a 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 a basketball coach at Georgia.