You just knew that Tennessee Vols athletic director Danny White was going to be asked about this. On Wednesday, baseball fans everywhere have been left stunned with the news that Tony Vitello is leaving Knoxville and he's taking over as the new manager of the San Francisco Giants.
Tennessee baseball fans are ripping Danny White over Tony Vitello leaving
Even before this was made official, rumors started spreading that Vitello and White had a rocky relationship and that Tony V was leaving because he wasn't happy with NIL funds and revenue sharing not being a priority for the baseball team. Instead, it was believed that money intended for the baseball program was going to Kim Caldwell and the Lady Vols. This simply is not true, White said while speaking to the media:
Tennessee Athletic Director Danny White chastised the media about rev share rumors on the internet. He tells media and fans to apologize to the women’s basketball team and also reinforces his stance that the Volunteers Baseball program is “extremely well equipped” pic.twitter.com/1yHhV3EzlY
— Noah Bieniek (@NoahB77_) October 22, 2025
Danny White passionately denied the Tennessee baseball-NIL rumors going around
"I think we should all collectively apologize to Kim Caldwell and our women's basketball program," White said on Wednesday. "That's factually incorrect. Never happened. Our rev-share numbers are consistent with the house settlement: five percent for women's basketball, 15 percent for men's basketball, 75 percent for football, five percent for 'other.' For that other bucket, we distributed $750,000 to our baseball program. That is far from (everything) we do for baseball or any sport."
White clearly was not happy about the speculation that was going around and he had a lot on his mind when he was asked about it. The rumors continue to come in that it's White's fault that Vitello left Knoxville, but at the end of the day, this could have just been Tony V wanting a shot to coach in the majors.
Still, there are a lot of UT supporters who have their eyebrows raised a bit right now. It doesn't help that Bob Nightengale has reported that Vitello is actually taking a bit of a pay cut in order to make the move to San Francisco from Tennessee.
Also, why did Vitello take so long to make his decision? On one hand, maybe he was just so torn that he needed extra time, but people are convinced he was trying to figure out a way to get more money for the Tennessee program out of White. All we know is that Vitello is off to the NL West and that White is going to have a tall task in trying to find a suitable replacement for the guy who helped Tennessee baseball win its only College Baseball World Series.