Virginia Tech head swimming & diving coach Sergio Lopez received a significant raise on his new contract extension, which kicks in on July 1, 2024. The extension was announced two weeks ago, and will keep him in Blacksburg through the 2027-2028 season.
His base pay for the 2022-2023 season is $185,000, and next season he’ll make $190,000, before a big jump with the new extension. That extension will continue to escalate annually through its term in 2028. The agreement is valued at $230,000 base pay in its final year.
| Annual period starting | Original or Extension | Base Salary |
| June 1, 2018 | Original | $155,000 |
| July 1, 2019 | Original | $160,000 |
| July 1, 2020 | Original | $170,000 |
| July 1, 2021 | Original | $180,000 |
| July 1, 2022 | Original | $185,000 |
| July 1, 2023 | Original | $190,000 |
| July 1, 2024 | Extension | $210,000 |
| July 1, 2025 | Extension | $215,000 |
| July 1, 2026 | Extension | $220,000 |
| July 1, 2027 | Extension | $230,000 |
The agreement also alters some of his incentive pay. The award for ACC Coach of the Year is doubled from $5,000 to $10,000, and the contract now spells out that he receives $5,000 each for National Coach of the Year honors from either the CSCAA or SwimSwam.
There was a dramatic increase in bonuses awarded for NCAA Championship finish or an ACC title. Lopez can earn a bonus for each team, but the bonuses are not cumulative. For example, if the women’s team wins an NCAA Championship and the men’s team finishes in the NCAA Top 5, Lopez would receive $75,000 total.
| Original Agreement | Extension | |
| ACC Championship | $5,000 | $10,000 |
| Top 20 Nationally | $3,500 | $10,000 |
| Top 10 Nationally | $7,500 | $15,000 |
| Top 5 Nationally | $10,000 | $25,000 |
| NCAA title | $25,000 | $50,000 |
Under both his old agreement and his extension, Lopez receives extension bonuses. Through December 31, 2023, those are $10,000 retention bonuses on July 1 and April 1 of each year. Beginning in 2024, he receives a $25,000 retention bonus on July 1 of each year, which escalates to $30,000 in 2026 and 2027.
With an increasing focus on assistant coach salaries and guaranteed operating budgets in the hiring process, this agreement is unique in swimming in that it includes commitments to assistant coach salary pools and operating budgets through the 2027-2028 season.
| Operating Budget |
Assistant coach salary pools
|
|
| 2023-2024 | $450,000 | $335,000 |
| 2024-2025 | $500,000 | $350,000 |
| 2025-2026 | $525,000 | $365,000 |
| 2026-2027 | $550,000 | $380,000 |
| 2027-2028 | $575,000 | $395,000 |
Having these kinds of commitments written into contracts is likely to become more-and-more common in future seasons.
What are the retention bonuses? Is that related to how well you keep your swimmers on the team/at the school?
Retention bonuses which are common for revenue sport coaches (I.e.football and basketball) are bonuses for staying at the school and not leaving for another job. It’s a way to add additional compensation without throwing salary structure for other coaches out of line.
Deserved. VT has had great success as of late, mainly with their international guys.
And to be fair to them, it’s also hard to recruit in state when there’s UVA
Man, coaching salaries are not what they were when I was coaching. Congrats to Sergio! That is football money for many schools.
A college coaches contract has a stipulation that if Swimswam gives an award the coach gets money?
That’s some serious recognition for Swimswam!
The assistant coach pool is definitely interesting, wondering if diving is apart of this.
With the changes to NCAA volunteer status, if you can still have two volunteers, including a diving coach the first year it averages to about $67k per coach. How many places have an increasing assistant coaching budget on a non-revenue producing sport?
The VA Tech AD, Whit Babcock, has been a great supporter of swimming and diving over the years. He reinstated the men’s scholarships at his last school after his predecessor had cut them.
Very good stuff. Should be standard for any athletic department trying to give SA’s a top-notch experience on top of giving themselves the best shot at winning. You see these kinda “market resets” all the time in other sports. Great to see it happen in our sport, and for one of the best in the industry!
Wish wvu would of gave him this back in the day
They don’t pay anyone that except for football and maybe basketball coaches
I believe we can thank Sergio for our new swimming facility. He was the one who kicked off the drive to get that built!!!