The Ole Miss coach, Chris Beard, has a net worth of $8 million. Beard earns an annual salary of $3.25 million and signed the contract last year in March.
While at Texas Tech and Texas, Chris Beard became one of the highest-earning basketball coaches. He was certainly in line to become the highest-paid coach in college basketball, but after being fired by Texas, his annual salary saw a sharp decrease.
A salary of $3.25 million is not a low one. But at one point, Chris Beard was already making $5 million. It might take him a few more years to reach the same level at Ole Miss.
Beard’s new side sits at 15-1 after their recent win over Vanderbilt. Not many thought that Chris Beard could change his side’s fortune this quickly, but he has shut down a few of his doubters.
Chris Beard Net Worth And Salary 2024
The Ole Miss basketball coach, Chris Beard, has a net worth of $8 million. Beard earns an annual salary of $3.25 million at Ole Miss, about $2 million less than he made at the University of Texas.
Beard’s coaching journey began at the same place in 1991, where he was last fired. His first job as a head coach came in 1999 at Fort Scott Community College, and a year later, he was at Seminole State JC.
Chris dropped down from his position as a head coach to associate head coach at Texas Tech. He spent ten years in that position before joining the South Carolina Warriors in 2011. In 2016, he returned to Texas Tech, but this time as the head coach.
Texas Tech became the first place that offered him his first seven-figure salary. In his first year, Chris made $1.3 million, and it increased to $1.5 million a year later.
Under Chris, Texas Tech became a strong team, and he coached the side to its first-ever Elite Eight berth in program history. In 2019, Texas Tech won its first-ever title in the Big 12 conference and its first since 1996.
So, it made sense to hand him an improved deal in 2019. He signed a six-year contract with an average salary of $4.5 million.
At the time, only John Calipari, Mike Krzyzewski, and Rick Barnes made more than Beard. But Chris didn’t see out his contract at Texas Tech as he made his way to the University of Texas in 2021.
In 2021, he signed a $35 million seven-year contract with Texas. His base salary of $5 million at Texas was $600,000 more than that at Texas Tech. But in 2023, Texas fired their coach, after an alleged domestic violence incident.
It tarnished his reputation and probably also affected his earnings at Ole Miss. After he was fired from Texas, Chris also sold his Austin house for $4.95 million. It remains unknown whether the basketball coach has any other business ventures.
Incident That Tarnished His Reputation
Everything seemed to have been going well for Chris Beard before Texas fired him in January 2023. In his first season, he led Texas to a win in the NCAA Tournament, alongside winning the most games.
In the 2022 season, Texas was cruising with a 7-1 start before the charges of domestic violence came against the coach. On December 12, 2022, Chris’ ex-fiance claimed the basketball coach assaulted and strangled her.
The Austin police were called to his home, and he was booked for third-degree assault. Chris was engaged to Randi Trew, a high school volleyball coach. He also shares three daughters from his previous relationship.
Before the assault charge, Trew would frequently post photos of them on her social media. On their second anniversary, Trew wrote on her Instagram, “2 years (later) to the day & almost time…couldn’t be happier. Everything I prayed for.”
On December 23, eleven days after Beard’s arrest, Trew missed a one-paragraph statement stating Beard had not strangled her. Trew also said that she did not believe Beard intended to harm her that night and that she never wanted him to be arrested and prosecuted.
But the damage was done. In January 2023, Texas announced they had fired their coach and wouldn’t have to pay the $25 million left on his contract.
In February, the DA moved to drop the domestic violence case against Beard. This also ended the threat of Chris heading to prison for ten years. Ole Miss announced Chris as their new basketball coach a month later.
