The FOIA office at the University of Virginia just obliterated any and all previous records with its unexpectedly speedy response to our request for a copy of the contract extension for UVA Basketball coach Ryan Odom that was announced just yesterday.
By the way, Odom signed the extension on May 1.
Not sure why it took ’em so long to announce things.
The numbers are in.
The verdict: our guy is getting more money, but … not as much as you’d expect.
Also: there’s an interesting addendum regarding the buyout that we need to get into later.
You’ll want to stick around.
First, to the money: Odom will get $4.15 million for the 2026-2027 season, with $100,000 raises each year thereafter through the end of the deal, in 2032.
Odom’s first contract, agreed to in March 2025, paid him $3.25 million for his first season, with $100,000 raises thereafter through the end of that deal, in 2031.
So, he’s getting $900,000 more per season for the five seasons between the coming season and the 2030-2031 season, plus the $4.65 million for the 2031-2032 season that is new to this one.
Sum total: he’s set to get $9.15 million more.
Note: there’s nothing in the language in the memorandum of understanding that spells all of this out about compensation for his assistants.
People like to say about their coaches, when they don’t get the money they think they’re due, that they sacrificed more money for themselves to make sure the assistants are taken care of.
Maybe there are other documents that we can FOIA that could spell that out, but the extension that Odom agreed to doesn’t have any language pertaining to compensation for the assistants.
There is, however, new language in the MOU about his buyout.
The numbers pertaining to how much Odom and/or a potential new employer would have to pay to buy him out of his UVA deal are only slightly different:
- $15 million if he leaves before April 27, 2027.
- $10 million if he leaves before April 30, 2028.
- $7.5 million if he leaves before April 30, 2029.
- $5 million if he leaves before April 30, 2031, and $2 million if he leaves after May 1, 2031, but before the end of the deal in 2032.
The slight adjustments: the previous deal called for a $10 million Odom buyout if he were to leave after the 2028-2029 season, and $7.5 million if he were to leave after the 2029-2030 season.
The bigger news here: the buyout is reduced, per the language in the new MOU, “if Carla is no longer AD.”
Interesting!
It doesn’t go down that much – for instance, from $15 million after this coming season to $12 million, “if Carla is no longer AD,” but still.
Read into that what you will.
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Chris Graham
