Projecting how Kevin Schnall’s salary at South Carolina could stack up in SEC

South Carolina has found its next head baseball coach after a weeks-long national search.

USC and Athletic Director Jeremiah Donati are expected to name Coastal Carolina head coach Kevin Schnall the next head coach of the Gamecocks’ program, per several reports (which The State confirmed) Tuesday morning.

Schnall will replace Paul Mainieri, who was let go in March after a 40-40 start in his 1.5 seasons as head coach at South Carolina.

Schnall has been head coach at Coastal since 2025. He took the Chanticleers to Omaha in his first year at the helm of the program. Coastal won 56 games in 2025 and were runners-up to LSU in the College World Series Finals.

This season, Schnall took Coastal Carolina back to the NCAA Tournament. The Chanticleers finished 37-32 after they were eliminated in the Tallahassee Regional. Schnall was an assistant at Coastal from 2001-12 and was the Chanticleers’ assistant head coach from 2016-2024.

It should be noted that Schnall’s hire and salary aren’t official just yet. USC’s Board of Trustees will need to convene and vote to approve Schnall’s contract.

As of Tuesday morning, reported details about what Schnall will be making at South Carolina are scarce. What we do know is that Schnall is due for a pay raise with the Gamecocks.

Schnall’s contract at Coastal Carolina paid him a base salary of $500,000, but his contract was chock-full of incentives that could drive that number up significantly. Still, that base salary alone would have put Schnall at the bottom of the SEC this year. For reference, Mainieri’s base salary of $1.3 million in 2026 was good enough to be ninth in the SEC.

It isn’t a stretch to assume Schall will make more than Mainieri at South Carolina. Anything above $1.3 million a year would put Schnall in the Top 10 of SEC head coaching salaries based on numbers The State compiled from various sources.

An annual salary of $1.5 million would put Schnall in line with Butch Thompson at Auburn ($1.5 million) and Dave Van Horn at Arkansas ($1.45 million).

If USC wants to make Schnall a Top 5 highest-paid coach in the conference, they’ll need to pay him more than the $1.84 million Florida is paying Kevin O’Sullivan.

SEC baseball coaches salaries for 2026 season

Note: The base salary of several coaches on this list changes from year-to-year. The most recent information The State could find for each coach is linked in the list.

1. Jay Johnson, LSU: $3.35 million
2. Brian O’Connor, Mississippi State: $2.9 million
3. Tim Corbin, Vanderbilt: $2.45 million
4. Jim Schlossnagle, Texas: $2.2 million
5. Kevin O’Sullivan, Florida: $1.84 million
6. Mike Bianco, Ole Miss: $1.625 million
7. Butch Thompson, Auburn: $1.5 million
8. Dave Van Horn, Arkansas: $1.45 million
9. Paul Mainieri, South Carolina: $1.3 million
10. Wes Johnson, Georgia: $1.3 million
11. Nick Mingione, Kentucky: $1.275 million
12. Rob Vaugh, Alabama: $1.275 million
13. Skip Johnson, Oklahoma: $1.2 million
14. Josh Elander, Tennessee: $1 million
15. Michael Earley, Texas A&M: $950,000
16. Kerrick Jackson, Missouri: $725,000

Michael Sauls

The State

Michael Sauls is The State’s South Carolina women’s basketball reporter. He previously worked at The Virginian-Pilot covering Norfolk State and Hampton University sports. A Columbia native, he is an alum of the University of South Carolina.