Fireworks lined the sky above Dudy Noble Field on Thursday night when Brian O’Connor was welcomed by thousands of cowbell-ringing fans as Mississippi State’s new head baseball coach.
But the bigger fireworks – at least figuratively speaking – may have been when those across the college baseball scene found out just how much the Bulldogs are paying to get O’Connor to leave his 22-season post at Virginia and relocate to Starkville.
Media members were handed a piece of paper about 30 minutes into the welcome party, one that disclosed for the first time the details of O’Connor’s contract. The national championship-winning coach will start with a base salary of $2.9 million across four years with performance incentives that include:
- $50,000 for winning the SEC regular championship
- $50,000 if winning the SEC tournament championship
- $50,000 if named SEC Coach of the Year via the coaches’ vote
- $50,000 if named National Coach of the Year by the Coaches’ Association
(The highest of the following, if more than one, is applicable)
- $50,000 for NCAA regional appearance
- $100,000 for NCAA super regional appearance
- $150,000 for College World Series appearance
- $200,000 for College World Series championship series appearance
- $300,000 for winning the College World Series
If O’Connor were to sweep the performance incentives during a single season, he could end that year with a whopping $3.4 million in his bank account. Either way, the base salary he and Mississippi State agreed to automatically launches O’Connor into the slot of second-highest paid college baseball coach in America.
The only coach making more is Tennessee’s Tony Vitello, who brings in an average salary of $3 million.
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O’Connor’s new salary is a combination of Mississippi State athletic and private funds and is a sharp increase from what he was receiving at Virginia, where he led the Cavaliers to 19 NCAA regionals and seven College World Series appearances. In Charlottesville, he was making $1.4 million annually.
O’Connor also received guarantees that at Mississippi State, the resources he will have at his disposal to build rosters through name, image, and likeness will some of the best, if not the best, in all of college baseball.
