Why Jerry Stackhouse was paid more than Mark Byington in 2024 despite firing – The Tennessean

Despite being fired just three months into the season, former Vanderbilt basketball coach Jerry Stackhouse was paid over $4.7 million in 2024, while newly hired coach Mark Byington made over $2.7 million for a partial year, tax records acquired by The Tennessean show.
Because Vanderbilt is a private school, full contracts are not available via public records requests. However, the university is required to file a 990 tax form detailing the compensation of its five highest-paid employees within 18 months of the end of each calendar year. The Tennessean acquired records for 2024, which were the most recent that were available.
Stackhouse was one of the university’s five highest-paid employees that calendar year.
The university reported a base salary of $1,223,740 and “other reportable compensation” of $3,495,761 for Stackhouse, along with bonuses and incentives of $60,000.
While the university is not required to disclose what “other reportable compensation” entails, Stackhouse and the university parted ways in March of that year after a 9-23 season. This is the first indication of what the scope of Stackhouse’s buyout could have been.
Vanderbilt is not new to large buyouts. Former football coach Derek Mason received payments of $2,166,660 in 2021, 2022 and 2023. Mason was not listed on the university’s 990 forms for 2024.
Mark Byington’s salary has not been publicly known up to this point. In 2024, the university reported paying $2,710,329 in compensation to Byington, which included a base salary of $2,477,196 and $100,000 in bonuses and incentives.
It is worth noting that this was not a complete year’s worth of data for Byington. Byington was hired in late March 2024, and thus is missing nearly three months’ worth of salary from the 2024 calendar year.
In his two seasons with Vanderbilt so far, Byington has led the Commodores to the NCAA tournament, including a second-round appearance in 2026. Byington signed an extension after the 2026 season, the terms of which were not known.
Shea Ralph has been at Vanderbilt since 2021, but her salary has never been made public. This is because she is not one of the university’s five highest-paid employees.
At minimum, Ralph made less than Clark Lea, Stackhouse, Byington and Tim Corbin in 2024.
Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at [email protected] or on X @aria_gerson.

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