Dawn Staley is officially the highest-paid head coach in NCAA women’s basketball, thanks to a seven-year contract totalling $22.4 million to continue her position with the University of South Carolina.
Since her tenure at the university, dating back 13 seasons, the Hall of Famer has flipped the conversation surrounding the women’s basketball program due to their impressive statistics. They are one of only three programs featured in half of the last six NCAA Final Fours (as of this writing) in which they took the trophy in 2017.
Under Staley’s reign, the team was the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament five times and spent an impressive 25 weeks at the top of the Associated Press Poll. These accomplishments are merely scratching the surface of how the recent Olympic Champion has transformed the University of South Carolina’s women’s basketball programme.
“Dawn Staley is one of the nation’s top coaches, regardless of the sport,” Ray Tanner, South Carolina Athletics Director, said, according to a press statement.
“She has built our women’s basketball program from the ground up, and her teams have produced champions on and off the floor. The ability to keep Coach Staley at the University of South Carolina is great news for all Gamecocks. I join our fans in looking forward to seeing the great achievements her program will continue to produce in the future.”
Yahoo Sports reported that Staley will earn $2.9 million with her new contract, an $800,000 increase from her former contract. This was an excellent feat for one of the top coaches, who revealed the contract was in light of her push for equity, which she shared was a top priority following the 2021 tournaments for men and women. As previously reported, pay disparities are a prominent issue plaguing women’s and men’s sports, with women being underpaid in the top five most popular sports compared to their male counterparts.
“It’s always been an honour to represent the University of South Carolina, and this contract represents the university’s commitment to supporting me and our women’s basketball program,” Staley said in a press statement.
She continued: “Contract negotiations are challenging, but this one was significant as I knew it could be a benchmark, an example for other universities to invest in their women’s basketball programs, too. Our game continues to grow, and the time is ripe to make a big step forward, but only if universities foster that growth by committing equitable resources to those given to their men’s programmes.”
That’s wonderful for Coach Staley. She deserves more. How is it that the top 20 highest-paid men’s basketball coaches make more than she does? John Calipari makes $8.5 million and has only coached one NCAA champion.