A week after University of Tennessee swimmer Mona McSharry became just the second Irish swimmer to ever win an Olympic medal in swimming, her coach Matt Kredich received a raise and a contract extension.
He received a $10,000 raise (3.8%) and an extension through the 2028-2029 season.
This is the fourth-straight offseason in which Kredich has received a contract extension. In the first year of his current contract, Kredich’s base pay was $207,000 and due to increase to $217,000 thereafter. In 2020, that $217,000 base rate was extended for two years, in 2021 the agreement made a significant leap to $250,000 per year in base pay (beginning in 2022), a year later his base pay was bumped to $260,000, and starting next season, he is owed $270,000 per season for at least the next five seasons, until April 30, 2029.
That increase in base pay also increases the bonuses that are available to Kredich. While most NCAA coaching contracts include absolute value bonuses, Kredich’s most recent new contract, from June 2019, affixes most bonuses as a percentage of base pay – meaning that those increase with his salary without having to update that section of the agreement specifically.
Bonus Structure:
| Achievement | Note | Bonus % | 2022 Extension | 2023 Extension | 2024 Extension |
| Top 5 Finish at NCAAs (Men) | Only 1 paid out | 12.00% | $30,000 | $31,200 | $32,400 |
| Top 5 Finish at NCAAs (Women) | Only 1 paid out | 12.00% | $30,000 | $31,200 | $32,400 |
| Top 10 Finish at NCAAs (Men) | Only 1 paid out | 8.33% | $20,825 | $21,658 | $22,491 |
| Top 10 Finish at NCAAs (Women) | Only 1 paid out | 8.33% | $20,825 | $21,658 | $22,491 |
| Top 15 Finish at NCAAs (Men) | Only 1 paid out | 6.00% | $15,000 | $15,600 | $16,200 |
| Top 15 Finish at NCAAs (Women) | Only 1 paid out | 6.00% | $15,000 | $15,600 | $16,200 |
| Six Athletes Competing at NCAAs (Men) | Only 1 paid out | 4.00% | $10,000 | $10,400 | $10,800 |
| Six Athletes Competing at NCAAs (Women) | Only 1 paid out | 6.00% | $15,000 | $15,600 | $16,200 |
|
Winning the SEC Championship (Men)
|
4.00% | $10,000 | $10,400 | $10,800 | |
|
Winning the SEC Championship (Women)
|
4.00% | $10,000 | $10,400 | $10,800 | |
|
Winning the NCAA Championship (Men)
|
4.00% | $10,000 | $10,400 | $10,800 | |
|
Winning the NCAA Championship (Women)
|
4.00% | $10,000 | $10,400 | $10,800 | |
|
SEC Coach of the Year
|
(Flat) | $2,500 | $2,500 | $2,500 | |
|
National Coach of the Year – CSCAA or SwimSwam
|
(Flat) | $5,000 | $5,000 | $5,000 |
McSharry was one of six University of Tennessee athletes to medal at the Paris Olympic Games. Also among them was post-grad swimmer Erika Connolly, who became the first female swimmer in program history to win three Olympic medals, joining SwimSwam co-founder Mel Stewart as the only Volunteer swimmers in that category.
The Tennessee women finished 2nd at last year’s SEC Championship meet and the men finished 5th a season after placing 2nd and 3rd, respectively.
At NCAAs, the Volunteer women finished 4th and the men finished 6th, both of which were improvements from a year prior (8th/7th). That 4th place finish earned Kredich the maximum NCAA Championship performance bonus under the terms of the contract of $31,200.
Kredich, 58, has been the head coach of the Tennessee women’s program since April 30, 2005, and took over the men’s program as well on April 12, 2012.
Salary should be 2x or 3x. Kredich is worth every penny.
That women’s team is going to be good next year: #4 recruiting class, hopefully a healthy Regan Rathwell, and they only lose McSharry. She can take another year if she wants it; does anybody know if she will?
I believe she is.
She’s coming back for another year
Looks like he will retire at Tenn. think that’s fair all around
If ima recruits I take notice that the coach is not about to bolt
And now a Japanese Olympian joining next year…good for the Vols.
How common is it for Japanese swimmers to come to the NCAA? Is this surprising?
Not common because Japanese college focus on LCM (SCM) and not sure how they manage NCAA champ in March with their selection competitions usually happening about the same time -March/early April.
And Ella Jansen had a pretty good Olympics,another part of the recruiting class.
One of the classiest and best head coaches in the NCAA. Well deserved Coach Matt!!
Very underrated and talented coach, never really see him in the conversation with coaches like DeSorbo, Reese, Meehan, Bowman etc. but he has produced lots of talented swimmers and Olympians. He does heavily recruit and train international swimmers, so maybe that’s the difference? Because I can’t think of a ton of US Olympians from UTK, Molly Hannis and Erika Brown are the only recent one that comes to mind.
He deserves all these extensions.
Nice to see that some in Knoxville recognize that Matt Kredich is a good and decent person and an exceptional coach. Glad to see goodness prevail.
Multiple reigning national champions and Olympic head coach DeSorbo is out here getting absolutely schooled in contract negotiations. If his next contract extension doesn’t at a minimum double what he is currently making he is doing the entire swimming coaching community a complete disservice. Someone like DeSorbo needs to be setting the bar on salary. That’s on UVA. Step up ya bums
you don’t know how much he’s getting paid behind the FOIA though.
Unless Virginia bolts for the SEC or Big 10, the Olympic sports coaches there (with the probable exceptions of Tiffany and O’Connor) will be less than their counterparts in the SEC and BIG.
DeSorbo does very well off his endorsement deals (Rhoback, for one) where the “base pay” matters less. And Charlottesville is a very nice, very livable college town.
Homeboy gets a new contract extension every year. Anyone know who is agent is?
My guess is that every year, Matt Kredich gets offered another job, and every year that’s his opportunity to express to his bosses how badly he wants to stay at the University of Tennessee.
He’s deserving. He can run a program and mentor staff.
That isn’t a big raise in any way! I think it is a matter that Olympics sports’ budgets are under scrutiny and will not increase with all this stuff going on! And more money going to football! Can you imagine football coach getting an extension for $10k. The equipment manager probably got a bigger extension!
I think point was that most college coaches make fair less than this
A 3.8% increase looks like a merit increase in my opinion – especially given the history (i.e. receiving one every year). They’re a fairly common annual increase used to acknowledge good performance and keep you in-line with competitors.