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Wake Forest

Report: Wake Forest paid nearly $15 million buyout to fired basketball coach Danny Manning

Alex Weberby:Alex Weber•05/26/23
danny manning
(Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

Former Wake Forest head coach Danny Manning became a very rich man a few years ago, according to the school’s federal tax returns, which were acquired by USA Today Sports. Per those documents, Wake Forest handed out a $14.7 million buyout payment to Manning when severed ties with him at the conclusion of the 2019-20 season.

USA Today says the documents stated that the Manning buyout “reflects a payment that was … in full satisfaction of all obligations under his contract of employment.” Those obligations must have included a hefty payout if Manning was terminated before the end of his deal, because 14.7 million bucks is a mammoth haul for a college head coach.

According to USA Today, its’ one of the biggest buyouts for a college hoops coach in their record books.

“The buyout is among the largest paid to a men’s basketball coach, according to data collected by USA TODAY Sports, which has been tracking buyouts that prospectively would be owed to coaches since 2017.”

Good for Danny Manning securing quite a bit of cash after bowing out in Winston-Salem. Despite the hefty chunk of change that just hit his pockets, Manning has still been heavily involved as a coach at the power five level. He immediately landed on his feet after being ousted at Wake Forest and took up a spot on Maryland coach Mark Tugreon’s bench.

Not long into Manning’s second season alongside Turgeon, the Terrapin head coach of over 10 years abruptly decided to step down in a joint decision with the school — and Manning was thrust into the interim role, guiding Maryland to a 10-14 finish that year before the athletic department went for a fresh start the following offseason.

After leaving Maryland, Manning connected with another prominent big man from an ACC school in Kenny Payne, who was starting his head coaching gig at Louisville this time a year ago. Obviously, year one of that experience wasn’t great for anyone involved, but Manning and Payne will look to flip things around in year two.