We know how much the new UVA Basketball coach, Ryan Odom, will be getting paid, and that his contract runs through 2031, mirroring the terms of an extension signed last summer by his predecessor, Tony Bennett.
There’s a lot we still don’t know.
The University of Virginia went ahead and answered our public-records request on Tuesday, a day after telling us, and then us telling the world, that they’d claimed to need until April 9 to forward us the PDF of his contract.
ICYMI
Looks like the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
What we got back wasn’t actually the full contract, but the offer sheet that Odom was offered on March 21, so, a day after his VCU team was knocked out of the 2025 NCAA Tournament, and was signed on March 24, so, the day that he was formally introduced as the new head coach.
Per the language in the offer sheet, “a revised appointment letter will be forthcoming which will include all other required terms and conditions set forth by the University of Virginia and the University of Virginia Department of Athletics.”
This one will have me in contact with the UVA Freedom of Information Act office into the early summer, because there are details there that I’m going to want to see.
In the here and now, here’s what we know:
- Odom will be paid a base salary of $500,000, with supplemental compensation at $1.75 million, and licensing pay at $1 million, for total compensation at $3.25 million, with $100,000 annual raises, meaning he’ll be paid $3.75 million for what is now the final year of the deal, in the 2030-2031 season.
- How this compares to the Bennett extension signed last summer: Bennett’s very specific annual total compensation was set at $4,020,287, with no annual raises set in the terms of the offer sheet that he signed on June 13.
- UVA agreed to pay Odom’s $1 million buyout owed to VCU per the terms of his deal with that school.
ICYMI
- What you need to know: Breaking down the Tony Bennett UVA contract extension
- More fun with public records: It won’t cost much to buy out Ryan Odom’s VCU deal
- The deal includes hefty buyouts to be paid by Odom if he leaves early to take another job: $15 million in the first two years of the deal, $10 million in Years 3 and 4, $7.5 million in Year 5, and $5 million ahead of the final year. Basically, he ain’t leaving.
What I’m still looking for: language specific to the structure of the new general manager position that we’re told will be added in the coming weeks.
I’m curious as to who the GM will answer to, whether it’s Odom or the athletics director, Carla Williams.
If it’s Odom, the GM isn’t really a GM, but is more like a recruiting coordinator.
If it’s Williams, and the GM and Odom both answer to Williams independent of each other, I’d be looking for language on who is deemed to be responsible for what, in terms of player evaluation, retention and budget management.
If Odom answers to the GM, we have a whole ‘nuther situation on our hands.
One other note: the FOIA office responded to my request for a copy of Griff Aldrich‘s contract. Aldrich has been publicly ID’d as the associate head coach, but there is no contract between Aldrich and UVA Athletics on file, according to the FOIA folks.
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Chris Graham
