Rick Barnes will be coaching Tennessee men’s basketball for the foreseeable future.
Barnes and the school reached a “lifetime contract” extension on Aug. 28, the school announced. Barnes has led the Vols to back-to-back Elite Eight appearances and has a 232-109 record in 10 seasons with the program. Tennessee had one Elite Eight appearance in program history under Barnes.
Barnes has led Tennessee to six 25-win seasons, three SEC titles, seven NCAA Tournaments, four Sweet 16s and two Elite Eight appearances.
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“I am incredibly thankful God brought me to the University of Tennessee 10-and-a-half years ago,” Barnes said in a school release. “It is an honor and a blessing to serve as the head basketball coach here.”
Barnes will earn $6 million annually under his contract. The contract is initially slated to run through April 15, 2028, and will automatically renew every April 15 to maintain a three-year term. That essentially allows Barnes to coach the Vols for the remainder of his career, until he decides to retire.
The contract states that the new contract “recognizes and rewards a lifetime of coaching success that continues to build upon itself and add to the basketball legacies of all those involved.”
“Rick has taken our program to unprecedented heights, and we are absolutely thrilled to have him continue coaching on Rocky Top for the rest of his career,” athletics director Danny White said. “He has constructed this program the right way, achieving elite-level success on the court while also ensuring that all our players excel off the court.”
Rick Barnes becomes seventh-highest-paid CBB coach
With the execution of his new contract, Barnes is slated to become the seventh-highest-paid coach in men’s college basketball, according to the USA TODAY coaches contract database.
Barnes, 71, will earn the same annual salary as national champion coach Todd Golden at Florida. He trails only Kansas’ Bill Self, Arkansas’ John Calipari, UConn’s Danny Hurley, Michigan State’s Tom Izzo, UCLA’s Mick Cronin and Auburn’s Bruce Pearl, in terms of men’s college basketball coaches in annual salary.
Last season, Barnes earned $7.1 million with a base salary of $5.8 million and another $1.3 million in bonuses for the 2024-25 season. Barnes also received a $200,000 bonus as part of the lifetime contract “in recognition of exemplary athletic and academic performances by the men’s basketball team” and to continue to work toward regular season and postseason success.”
Barnes, who coached at Texas, Clemson, Providence and George Mason, before taking the Vols job, originally signed a six-year contract worth $13.5 million to take the job in April 2015. His original salary paid him $2.25 million, which made him the 35th highest-paid nationally and the 10th out of 14 SEC coaches, entering the 2017-18 season.
Rick Barnes contract buyout
If Tennessee were to fire Barnes without cause before April 15, 2028, the school would owe him 100% of his salary. However, the school would not owe him anything if he is fired after that date. He would also not owe the school anything if he chooses to retire.
If Barnes accepted a head coaching job elsewhere within two years of leaving Tennessee, he would owe the school $1 million per year on what remains of his contract at the time.
The contract language permits either Tennessee or Barnes to, “after consultation and coordination with the other party in good faith, to notify the other party of intent to allow the contract to expire at the end of the current contract year and stop any automatic renewal on or after April 15, 2028.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tennessee basketball awards Rick Barnes ‘lifetime contract’
