We were told last week, by a person with knowledge of Virginia Tech Athletics who I am convinced would know, that the school is probably stuck with its basketball coach, Mike Young, because it doesn’t have the money to buy out Young’s contract.
I just got a copy of Young’s contract from Virginia Tech, via a Freedom of Information Act request, and, I dunno.
ICMYI
Young, per the contract extension that he signed in 2021, two years into his original deal, signed in 2019, is only under contract for two more years, through the end of the 2026-2027 season.
His salary for the next two years is $3 million per, and the buyout, after March 15 of this year, drops to $4 million.
I’m not saying Whit Babcock, the AD down there, wants to get rid of Young, who is on the verge of missing the NCAA Tournament for the third straight year, but if he wants to, he can, and it won’t cost much, from my read of things.
Keep in mind here: a buyout isn’t due in a lump sum, and the language on how the remaining money could be parceled out allows the athletics department to space out the payments according to the payment schedule for the duration of the contract, if it chooses.
That wouldn’t necessarily be ideal, because Tech would be paying a guy a nice sum of money to not coach, in addition to paying some other guy a probably slightly nicer sum of money to be the coach.
But to me, if the school were to decide to pay Young off in a lump sum, $4 million shouldn’t be viewed as daunting for an athletics program with an annual athletics budget in the $130 million-$140 million range.
The Brent Pry factor
When I wrote on the Mike Young topic last week, I mentioned, as an aside, the issue with the football coach, Brent Pry, whose seat is also getting warmer, with three underachieving seasons under his belt since he was hired in 2021.
Pry’s total compensation, according to the copy of the contract that I got back from my FOIA request, will be at $4.75 million for the 2025 and 2026 seasons, and increases to $5 million for the final year of his current six-year deal, in 2027.
Per the details of his contract, if Pry were to be fired after the 2025 season, he would be due 70 percent of the value of his total compensation for 2026, so, $3.325 million, and 50 percent of the total compensation for 2027, so, $2.5 million.
That’s pretty AD-friendly, if you ask me – $5.825 million.
For context as to why I say that, if UVA were to cut bait with its coach, Tony Elliott, also hired in 2021, also coming off three underachieving seasons, and also under contract through the 2027 season, after the 2025 season, the school would owe him the entirety of his agreed-upon total compensation through the end of his deal, or $9.475 million.
Elliott isn’t set to get paid at the level of Pry: Elliott’s deal has his total compensation for the 2025 and 2026 seasons at $3.9 million per year, increasing modestly to $4.05 million for the 2027 season.
An odd feature to Elliott’s contract is that the contract terms ends on May 31, 2028, so, not including the 2028 season, but after spring practice.
Pry’s deal is set to end on Dec. 1, 2027.
My read of the Elliott/UVA contract is that it calls for him to be eligible for $2.55 million in supplemental compensation effective April 1, 2028.
I may be reading that wrong, but if it were to become an issue, I can bet that his lawyer would fight tooth and nail on that.
That’s why I’m factoring that additional $2.55 million into his buyout.
The UVA Athletics folks might want to clean up that language in its contracts in the future.
Not that I’m a lawyer or anything.
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Chris Graham
