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College World Series

Here's how much each College World Series baseball coach gets paid

Josh Vitale
Nashville Tennessean

The driving force for any coach in college baseball is the chance to lead his team to Omaha, Nebraska, for the College World Series.

But the money doesn't hurt.

The eight coaches who will man the dugouts at TD Ameritrade Park beginning Saturday make a good bit of it, albeit less than they would have prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, as more than half took pay reductions this year.

Tim Corbin, the coach of defending champion Vanderbilt, is surely the highest-paid member of the group, though terms of Stanford coach David Esquer's contract are not known. 

Terms of Corbin's contract also are not subject to public records laws, but with bonuses he earned more than $1.4 million in 2019, according to the school's most recent federal tax returns. His base salary was $1.2 million that year. 

Arizona's Jay Johnson is the second-highest paid coach at slightly more than $855,000. Virginia's Brian O'Connor is third at slightly more than $765,000, but he earned an extra $500,000 on June 1 as a longevity bonus written into his contract (he has led the Cavaliers since 2004).

Mississippi State coach Chris Lemonis is the fourth-highest paid at $750,000, which is $150,000 more than he earned when he led the Bulldogs to Omaha in 2019. Texas coach David Pierce's contract calls for him to be paid more than that ($850,000), but his contract was reduced by nearly $120,000 this year due to COVID-19. That reduction will be paid back before the expiration of his contract.

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The other coaches who took pay reductions this year were Johnson, O'Connor, Tennessee's Tony Vitello, and N.C. State's Elliott Avent, though Avent triggered an automatic one-year contract extension for leading the Wolfpack to the NCAA Tournament.

Here's a breakdown of each coach's scheduled annual compensation, which does not include bonuses or the value of benefits and perks:

Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin reacts after their victory over Michigan in game three of the 2019 NCAA Men's College World Series Finals at TD Ameritrade Park Wednesday, June 26, 2019, in Omaha, Neb.

Total scheduled annual compensation of coaches at College World Series

  • Vanderbilt's Tim Corbin: $1.2 million (this was Corbin's base salary for 2019 calendar year, according to the school’s most recent federal tax records. Exact terms of his contract are not known.)
  • Arizona's Jay Johnson: $856,687 (after 20% COVID-19 pay reduction in effect from Aug. 10, 2020 through Dec. 27, 2020. Includes $302,300 as value of coach’s annual vesting in longevity fund units held by the University of Arizona Foundation on behalf of the university’s athletics department, as well as $65,000 paid from agreement with Nike.)
  • Virginia's Brian O'Connor: $765,530 (after 10% COVID-19reduction in scheduled pay for current contract year in effect from July 1, 2020 through Dec. 24, 2020. Does not include money university is obligated to pay from agreement with Rawlings. He also earned a longevity bonus of $500,000 for staying on as coach from June 15, 2016, to June 1 of this year.)
  • Mississippi State's Chris Lemonis: $750,000
  • Texas's David Pierce: $731,250 (after reduction of $118,750 due to COVID-19)
  • Tennessee's Tony Vitello: $550,000 (after reduction of $50,000 due to COVID-19)
  • N.C. State's Elliott Avent: $434,833.33 (after reduction of $65,166.67 due to COVID-19)
  • Stanford's David Esquer: N/A (Stanford is a private school and therefore not subject to public records laws. Esquer's salary does not rank among the top five at the university, which means it does not appear on the school's federal tax records.)

Source: Documents and information obtained from the schools by USA TODAY.

Steve Berkowitz contributed reporting for this story.

Josh Vitale is the Auburn beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. You can follow him on Twitter at @JoshVitale. To reach him by email, click here.

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