Vols football staff agrees to waive bowl bonuses
If Tennessee winds up playing in a bowl game this season, its football staff won't collect bonuses off the appearance.
Tennessee's nine football assistants and its strength coach signed contract amendments this week to waive any bowl bonus for this season that their contracts otherwise would entitle them to receive.
Knox News obtained the contract amendments via a public records request.
By those 10 staffers waiving a bowl bonus, the athletic department will save $324,870.
Coach Jeremy Pruitt also will not receive a bowl bonus this season under the teams of the contract extension he received in September.
Earlier this season, Tee Martin and Jay Graham were Tennessee's only football assistants who agreed to tiered pay cuts that were requested by the athletic department. Tennessee's other seven assistants and strength coach A.J. Artis declined those voluntary pay cuts, making them the athletic department's only contract employees who rejected a pay cut.
Tennessee (2-6) is in the midst of a six-game losing streak with two regular-season games remaining, but a bowl game remains in play because there is no win minimum required to gain bowl eligibility this season.
Pruitt has said he "absolutely" would be interested in a bowl bid.
The bowl bonus cost savings come during a fiscal year in which Tennessee's athletic department has projected a $40 million loss in revenue, largely because of a pandemic-induced reduction in football revenue.
What bonuses are Vols football assistants typically awarded?
Tennessee's football assistant coaching contracts award bonuses for bowl appearances, playing in or winning the SEC Championship Game and playing for or winning the national championship.
The contracted bowl bonus does not require a minimum win total.
Recent bowl projections list games such as the Birmingham Bowl or Music City Bowl in Nashville as potential landing spots for Tennessee. Such a bowl bid typically would yield an 8.33% bonus for assistants, based on that assistant's salary, with the bonus capped at $41,650.
Waiving potential bowl bonuses of $41,650 are offensive coordinator Jim Chaney, defensive coordinator Derrick Ansley and assistants Will Friend and Jay Graham.
Assistants Tee Martin and Chris Weinke waived potential bonuses of $37,485, Brian Niedermeyer waived $29,155, Shelton Felton and Joe Osovet waived $18,742.50 and Artis waived $16,660.
Pruitt, on Oct. 18, fired defensive line coach Jimmy Brumbaugh, who also will not be eligible for a bowl bonus.
Starting next season, Pruitt would earn a bowl bonus of $200,000 for a game such as the Birmingham Bowl, Music City Bowl or another bowl not part of the College Football Playoff or New Year's Six, but his contract extension outlined that he would not receive such a bonus this season.
Tee Martin, Jay Graham accepted pay cuts this season
Athletic departments across the country are projecting operating deficits in the tens of millions for this fiscal year, because of the effects of the pandemic.
Tennessee's athletic department has avoided layoffs, but in October, it announced tiered salary reductions would go into effect from Nov. 1 through June 30 for employees earning more than $50,000 annually.
Salaries of at-will employees can be freely altered, but the salaries of Tennessee's head coaches and football assistants are protected by their contracts. For Tennessee to decrease a contract employee's pay, the employee must voluntarily accept a cut and sign a contract amendment agreeing to the reduction.
The athletic department requested that all of its contract employees, except Pruitt, opt in to the pay cuts. Pruitt was not asked to take a cut because he opted to not accept a raise during the 2020 contract year, a move the athletic department says saved $400,000.
Each of Tennessee's other head coaches accepted the tiered pay cut throughout the requested eight-month period, and athletics director Phillip Fulmer and deputy AD Reid Sigmon also took cuts. Fulmer and Sigmon are the department's only administrators who work on a contract.
Martin agreed to the requested pay cut, and Graham agreed to a lesser cut while keeping open the option of later agreeing to the requested cut.
The rest of the staff rejected cuts, which would have amounted to less than 10% of each coach's salary owed during the requested eight-month period. The exact percentage for each coach would have depended on his salary.
Knox News first reported Nov. 13 that seven football assistants and the strength coach rejected pay cuts after obtaining, via a public records request, athletic department emails that confirmed those staffers' decisions to decline the pay cuts.
Pruitt, in response to that Knox News story, said during a Nov. 16 news conference that "the final story has not been written" on the salary reductions and called it "a fluid situation."
"There will be opportunities to make adjustments as we move on," Pruitt said then.
Martin and Graham remain the only football assistants who have accepted pay cuts.
"We've really been focused on what's going on right now, and we'll focus on that when the season is over with," Pruitt said Wednesday, when asked by Knox News whether any additional assistants had agreed to the pay cut.