It only took Virginia Tech a single day to respond to my Freedom of Information Act request for a copy of the contract extension announced for baseball coach John Szefc on Wednesday.
For reference, back on Sept. 10, I filed a FOIA request with the University of Virginia asking for copies of contracts for the home football games with Norfolk State and Delaware, and the FOIA folks there have emailed me twice about needing extra time.
To find copies of contracts.
Which involves doing a simple database search.
In essence, pushing a few buttons.
Advantage: Virginia Tech.
So, back to John Szefc, his contract was extended.
According to the copy of the extension that we now have in hand, his most recent extension was to run through June 30, 2027; now he’s under contract through June 30, 2030, so, he got three extra years.
The previous deal was going to pay him $725,000 in base salary and supplemental compensation for the 2026-2027 academic sports year.
The new deal:
- he’ll get a slight raise, to $775,000 for 2026-2027.
- with $40,000 raises in the 2027-2028 and 2028-2029 academic sports years, and a $45,000 raise in the 2029-2030 academic sports year.
The raises would bring his total salary and supplemental compensation to $900,000 for the 2029-2030 academic sports year.
The contract also gives Szefc a $50,000 retention bonus each July 1 for the next four years.
Here I want to compare what Tech is paying Szefc to what UVA Athletics is paying Chris Pollard, who was hired last summer after Brian O’Connor bolted for Mississippi State.
I got my hands on Pollard’s contract last summer.
That one took two weeks to get fulfilled.
Ahem.
Pollard’s deal, which runs through the 2032 baseball season, gave him $1.2 million per year in base salary, supplemental compensation and licensing compensation for the first year of the agreement, the 2025-2026 academic sports year, with a guaranteed 3 percent annual raise – which amounts to raises of:
- $36,000 in Year 1
- $37,080 in Year 2
- $38,192 in Year 3
- $39,388 in Year 4
- $40,518 in Year 5
- $41,733 in Year 6
- $42,985 in Year 7
That would have his total compensation for the final year of the deal, the 2031-2032 academic sports year, at $1.475 million.
One other area of note: assistant and support staff salaries.
Pollard’s deal gives him $750,000 a year for his assistant coaches, plus an additional $181,000 a year for support staff.
Szefc is getting $760,000 for assistants and support staff for the 2026-2027 academic sports year, increasing to:
- $790,000 on July 1, 2027
- $825,000 on July 1, 2028
- $860,000 on July 1, 2029
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Chris Graham
