How Rick Barnes earned $1.6 million in bonus money while leading Tennessee to Elite Eight
Tennessee basketball is coming off one of its most productive seasons in program history, winning an SEC regular-season championship before going on a run to the Elite Eight. Rick Barnes is coming off one of the most financially fruitful postseason runs, too.
Barnes made $1.6 million in bonus money after leading the Vols to the league title and taking them to the fourth round in the NCAA Tournament, before being eliminated by No. 1-seed Purdue.
The first bonus kicked in on March 6 when Tennessee won 66-59 at South Carolina, clinching the program’s first outright SEC regular-season championship since 2008. For Barnes, it was worth $400,000.
The “SEC Achievements” in his contract gives him $400,000 for winning the league’s regular-season championship and $200,000 for winning the SEC Tournament, like the Vols did in 2022.
Rick Barnes received $800,000 bonus for reaching Elite Eight
Next was on March 29 when Tennessee beat Creighton 82-75 in the Sweet 16, advancing to the Elite Eight for just the second time in program history and giving Barnes another $800,000 in bonus money.
There are seven NCAA Tournament achievement bonuses in the contract with a maximum of one bonus being hit based on the highest goal achieve. Making the NCAA Tournament is worth $200,000 and advancing to the second round is worth $400,000.
A Sweet 16 trip is worth $600,000 and a Final Four appearance would’ve been worth $1 million. Playing in the national championship game would’ve been worth $1.2 million and winning a national championship would’ve been wroth $1.5 million.
The final bonus hit on Tuesday, when Tennessee finished at No. 5 in both the final Associated Press Top 25 and USA Today Coaches Poll. In the “National Ranking Achievement” section of the contract, a top-five finish in the AP Top 25 is worth another $400,000. Finishing in the top 25 is worth $100,000 and finishing in the top ten is worth $200,000.
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The finish at No. 5 in the AP Top 25 tied a program record for its highest ranking in the final poll. The No. 5 finish in the Coaches Poll set a new program record.
No other college basketball coach has a higher maximum bonus pool
Barnes could earn another $50,000 with a single-year APR score of $50,000 or $100,000 with a single-year APR score of 980 or greater.
Barnes, according to the USA Today database of men’s basketball head coach salaries, is ranked No. 5 nationally with a total pay of $5.7 million. His maximum bonus of $3 million, according to the USA Today database, is the highest in college basketball.
Florida State’s Leonard Hamilton, at $2.675 million, is second highest, coming in ahead of Arizona State’s Bobby Hurley at $2.055 million. UConn’s Dan Hurley makes $5 million per year with a $2 million maximum bonus.
Ahead of Barnes in total pay is Bruce Pearl at $5,716,652 and Tom Izzo at $6,196,169. John Calipari made $8,539,961 at Kentucky and Bill Self is the highest-paid coach in the country, making $9,625,642 at Kansas.
