The University of South Carolina’s board of trustees approved a contract extension for women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley on Friday that will make her the highest-paid coach in women’s college basketball.
The extension keeps Staley in Columbia through the 2029-30 season with an annual base salary of $4 million per year. Previously, she was the third-highest-paid coach in the country — behind LSU’s Kim Mulkey and UConn’s Geno Auriemma — at $3.1 million per year in base. With a signing bonus and annual increases, the total contract is worth more than $25 million.
Staley has been at South Carolina since 2008, taking over a program that was a near-perennial basement dweller in the SEC and turning the Gamecocks into one of the best programs in women’s college basketball. South Carolina won its first conference title under Staley in 2014 and the program’s first national title in 2017. The Gamecocks won titles again in 2022 and 2024, with the latter marking just the 10th time in women’s basketball history that a team capped an undefeated season with a national championship.
The Gamecocks are currently ranked No. 2 in the AP poll behind UCLA, the only team to whom South Carolina has lost this season. The team returned all but one of its players from its national title squad from a season ago while welcoming a talented freshman class, too.
“I’m proud to represent the University of South Carolina and of its investment in women’s basketball,” Staley said. “What we’ve been able to accomplish on the court is a testament to what can happen when you bring together the right people from a team perspective but also have the right commitment from the university, the athletics department and the community to providing that team with everything it needs to be successful.”
The contract extension marks the first big move by new athletic director Jeremiah Donati. Donati took over for Ray Tanner, who was one of the longest-serving ADs in the SEC, at the end of 2024. Donati’s move signals an understanding of the importance Staley holds at South Carolina and the increasing value of women’s college basketball. The announcement comes just days after NCAA membership unanimously voted to award units to women’s teams that appear in the NCAA Tournament.
“Dawn Staley is a once-in-a-generation coach who has made a tremendous impact on the University of South Carolina,” Donati said. “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.”
Even with Staley’s raise, her salary still lags behind the top coaches in men’s college basketball. According to a USA Today database of coach salaries, Staley’s new salary would have trailed the salaries of 16 men’s basketball coaches from last season, including Kansas’ Bill Self, who led all college basketball coaches with an annual salary of more than $9.6 million.
Staley also trails South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer, who made more than $6.4 million in the 2024 season.
This is not the first time Staley is making news with a contract extension. After the 2020-21 season, when Staley was in negotiations with South Carolina, she asked her agent to stand down and instead hired an attorney to handle the negotiations in order to argue for equal pay with then-South Carolina men’s basketball coach Frank Martin. The deal she signed brought her to pay equity over the lifespan of the contract with Martin (who was subsequently fired after the 2021 season).
“These three words always come up: fair market value,” Staley told The Athletic in 2022. “So, where’s the market for the type of coach I am? Where is it? How can it be fair market value? I’m a Black coach, I’m a woman, I’m pretty successful. We built our program. We’re entrenched in the community. We’ve got something special here. Like, who are you comparing me to? Who’s my comp? So, I’m just like, I don’t settle. I’m not going to settle. You’re not going to use those three words.”
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(Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images)
