St. John's paid former coach Mike Anderson $7.8 million in arbitration settlement, tax return shows
St. John's head coach Mike Anderson gestures during a game against Temple at Barclays Center on Nov. 21, 2022. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
St. John’s University paid former men’s basketball coach Mike Anderson $7.8 million, according to the university’s 2025 tax returns, offering the first public disclosure of the settlement terms in Anderson’s 2023 firing.
St. John’s fired Anderson for cause in an attempt to not pay him the approximately $11 million left on his contract, which had four years remaining. The longtime college basketball coach retained a lawyer and fought the dismissal through an arbitration filing, ESPN reported at the time.
Tax-exempt organizations, including most private universities, are required by the IRS to submit a Form 990, which is public information. St. John’s most recent Form 990, obtained by Newsday, covers the 12-month period from June 2024 through May 2025 and reports “former head coach men’s basketball” Anderson as receiving $7.84 million.
St. John’s and Anderson’s Manhattan-based employment attorney, John Singer, announced in November 2024 that they had reached a settlement, without providing details.
Singer, reached by email on Thursday, declined to comment. St. John’s spokesman Brian Browne also declined to comment.
St. John’s hired Rick Pitino less than two weeks after Anderson was fired. Pitino has revitalized the St. John’s program since taking over on an initial six-year deal worth about $20 million, and the university rewarded him after this past season’s Sweet 16 run by restructuring his deal.
The new arrangement increases his annual salary to about $6.5 million for the next three years, Newsday reported, while allowing for the possibility of coaching beyond that time and including incentives such as reaching the Final Four or winning a national title.
Pitino’s restructured deal made him the second-highest-paid coach in the Big East Conference behind Connecticut’s Dan Hurley, who signed a six-year extension for a total of $50 million after winning the national championship in 2024.
Bill Self of Kansas is the highest-paid coach in college basketball, making $8.8 million a year, according to USA Today.
Anderson, a head coach at UAB, Missouri, Arkansas and St. John’s from 2002 through 2023, has not coached since he left St. John’s.
Jim Baumbach is an award-winning investigative reporter at Newsday, where he has worked since 1998. He spent two decades in the sports department, where he covered every professional team and league, including events such as the Super Bowl and World Series.
