Dawn Staley is now the highest-paid coach in the history of women’s college basketball.
On Friday, South Carolina’s board of trustees approved a new contract for the three-time championship coach that will pay her $4 million annually and will increase by $250,000 every year until it ends in 2030. The contract also came with a $500,000 signing bonus, which brings its total value to $25.25 million.
The deal tops LSU coach Kim Mulkey’s, which was a previous high of roughly $3.2 million annually. Staley’s previous contract was third highest, according to the USA Today Sports database, at $3.1 million, about the same amount that Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma was getting paid.
The contract is the first major deal done by South Carolina’s new athletic director Jeremiah Donati, who took over for Ray Tanner in December after Tanner retired.
“Dawn Staley is a once-in-a-generation coach who has made a tremendous impact on the University of South Carolina,” Donati said in the news release. “She has elevated the sport of women’s basketball on the national level and here on campus and I am excited that she will be representing our University for many years to come.”
Staley’s 2023–2024 team went 38–0 to win her third national championship, in addition to six Final Fours. Her current team is 17–1 and ranked No. 2 in the AP top 25 poll.
Her success at South Carolina has put Staley in the mix for WNBA and NBA jobs, which her new contract reflects, despite her adamantly saying she has no interest in coaching in either league.
In 2021, Staley interviewed for the Portland Trail Blazers’ head coaching job and said the organization “treated me like a real candidate” throughout the process. This past year, she was floated for the Washington Wizards’ and Charlotte Hornets’ coaching vacancies, but wasn’t interested in either, despite her ties to Charlotte as a former star player for the now-defunct Sting of the WNBA.
If Staley takes another coaching job before her new contract expires on April 15, 2030, she will owe the school “an amount equal to the coach’s guaranteed annual compensation, pro rated, for the remaining term of the agreement,” the contract says. But if Staley accepts a coaching job in the NBA or WNBA, she won’t owe the school anything.
