UVA Baseball: Details of Chris Pollard deal, which runs through 2032

The new UVA Baseball coach, Chris Pollard, will earn $1.2 million in the first year of his seven-year deal with UVA Athletics, according to the terms of a memorandum of understanding that he signed on June 10.

We got a copy of the MOU through a public-records request with the University of Virginia that was fulfilled on Tuesday.

The MOU spells out that Pollard will get 3 percent annual raises, which in the first year will boost his take-home by $36,000.

I would expect that he’ll end up getting more down the line, assuming success.

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ICYMI

• UVA Baseball: Chris Pollard officially welcomed as new head coach
• For Chris Pollard, who grew up a UVA Basketball fan, the UVA Baseball job is a ‘homecoming’
• UVA Baseball coach Chris Pollard finalizes his new coaching staff, with familiar names

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Pollard was paid a reported $800,000 a year at Duke, under the terms of an extension that he signed in 2023, after Miami had approached him to gauge his interest in their open job.

So, a nice raise for the veteran coach, but still not quite what UVA Athletics was paying Brian O’Connor, who signed a contract extension last summer that was to pay him $1.4 million a year through the 2031 season.

Pollard’s deal runs through the 2032 season.

O’Connor left Virginia for the job at Mississippi State, which will pay him $2.9 million a year for the duration of a four-year deal.

O’Connor owes UVA Athletics a $500,000 buyout, per the terms of his 2024 contract extension.

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ICYMI

• O’Connor’s departure leaves UVA Baseball camp families holding the bag

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Back to Pollard: the MOU gives him $750,000 annually for an assistant coach salary pool, $181,000 for support staff and $650,000 for an annual operating budget.

He also gets “1 car to be provided,” which is nice, if you can get it.

There’s also a list of easy-to-earn performance bonuses that tops out at $50,000 for earning a College World Series berth and $100,000 for winning a national championship.

All told, this accounts for just under $2.8 million in annual spending on the UVA Baseball program, not inclusive of money that goes toward scholarships, House settlement salaries and NIL.

Per data from Sportico.com, the UVA Baseball program reported $6.0 million in spending in the 2023-2024 academic sports year, the most recent year for which athletics spending numbers are available.

That total ranked second in the ACC, behind Clemson, which reported $6.5 million in baseball spending in the 2023-2024 year.