(This story has been updated to add new information.)
COLUMBIA — South Carolina’s board of trustees met Friday and approved a new contract for South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley, making her the highest paid college women’s basketball coach in the history of the sport.
Staley’s new contract will run through 2029-30 and she will receive an annual salary of $4 million with a $250,000 increase every season and a $500,000 signing bonus which makes the total value approximately $25.25 million.
According to the USA TODAY Sports database, LSU coach Kim Mulkey was the highest paid coach with a total pay of $3,264,000. Staley was third with her previous salary of $3,100,000. UConn coach Geno Auriemma was making $3,100,000 as of March 2024.
This is the first major contract move for South Carolina’s new athetic director Jeremiah Donati, who took over for Ray Tanner in the last month.
“Dawn Staley is a once-in-a-generation coach who has made a tremendous impact on the University of South Carolina,” Donati said in a statement 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.”
According to the contract, if Staley takes another college coaching job before her 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 as if it naturally expired on April 15, 2030,” however if Staley accepts a job coaching a WNBA or NBA team, she will not be legally obligated to pay anything to South Carolina.
The Gamecocks went a perfect 38-0 last season for their third national championship and since Staley’s arrival in Columbia, South Carolina has become one of five programs to have at least three national championships, and is one of two programs to have put together multiple 40-game win streaks. This season, South Carolina had broken its own program record with 43-straight wins.
Under Staley, South Carolina has been to six of the last nine NCAA Final Fours, including the last four.
The historic news comes less than 24 hours after the No. 2 Gamecocks picked up win No. 17 of the season, pushing their record to 17-1 and 5-0 in SEC play.
Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email her at lkesin@gannett.com and follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @Lulukesin
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: South Carolina’s Dawn Staley highest paid coach in women’s college basketball
