Danny White calls out rumor that Tennessee baseball funds were going to women's basketball

Reports on Wednesday revealed that Tony Vitello is expected to become the next manager of the San Francisco Giants. Questions over how this historic turn of events came to be have swirled.

One rumor that made the rounds was that Tennessee athletic’s allocation of funds gave the women’s basketball program, alongside new head coach Kim Caldwell, money that was intended for Vitello’s baseball program. When asked about how he plans to approach splitting of funds across the athletics department, Vols athletic director Danny White disputed these claims and called out those who reported it.

“Did anybody report that in here? So who reported it? Somebody had to make up something that’s not true for it to become a rumor, right?” White said. “So I think we should all collectively apologize to Kim Caldwell and our basketball program because that’s factually incorrect. Never happened.

The House Settlement allowed $20.5 million to be shared with athletes, which began on July 1. Football will receive 75% of the allotted amount, followed by men’s basketball (15%), women’s basketball (5%) and the remainder of the institution’s sports (5%). White revealed specific numbers associated with both program’s allocation.

“Our rev-share numbers are consistent with the house settlement. Five percent for women’s basketball, 15% for men’s basketball, 75% for football, 5% percent for other. We with that other budget, which is $900,000, we distributed $750,000 to our baseball program. That is far from what we do for baseball or for any sport. Like all the most competitive programs in the country, we participated in front loading last spring. Baseball was a beneficiary of that.”

White reiterated that Tennessee is supporting baseball at a higher level than any athletic department in the country. This comes two seasons after the Volunteers won its first national championship in program history.

“We are full scholarships in baseball, all 34 spots. We were one of the first schools to sprint to that. I think we were the the only school in the country that’s also doing cost of attendance on top of that,” White continued. “That was about a $1.2 million new investment this year, that a sport like women’s basketball wouldn’t have gotten. And we do more with rev share and with NIL packages for baseball on top of their rev share.

“So, I know what the competitive space is in the SEC and across the country, and I know our baseball program is extremely well equipped. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be recruiting at the level we are.”