Why doesn’t Dawn Staley make what Frank Martin does at USC? No, I don’t get it either

How much compensation should Dawn Staley receive to coach the USC women’s basketball team?

Never mind.

I already know the correct answer.

The correct answer is, “However much Dawn Staley wants to be compensated to coach the USC women’s basketball team.”

Seriously.

After all, Staley is the head coach who:

▪ Currently leads the nation’s No. 1-ranked team in women’s college basketball.

▪ Has already won one national title at USC — and would have likely attained a second if the NCAA Tournament had not been rightly canceled because of the coronavirus threat.

▪ Has recorded more than 300 victories as Gamecocks head coach.

▪ Will soon run out of fingers to count all of the NCAA Tournament appearances that USC has earned under her leadership — and all of the SEC conference titles, too.

I mean, we could go on.

But come on.

The above evidence alone should be enough to prove this point:

In an ideal world, Dawn Staley would name her price to lead the USC women’s basketball program — and the university would reply, “Fine by us!” faster than it takes to actually dribble a basketball.

Period.

But until we reach that idyllic moment, shouldn’t Staley’s record of sustained excellence enable her to at least receive the same pay package that men’s basketball head coach Frank Martin is getting while achieving far, far less success?

Shouldn’t Staley be receiving the same $3.05 million that Martin now receives in his current annual pay package with USC — rather than the $1.9 million that she’s actually getting?

Better yet, why should we even be having a conversation like this?

Why should such a yawning pay gap have ever existed between a women’s coach who is breaking records at USC and a men’s coach who is — relatively speaking — just breaking the bank there?

You’re right.

I don’t get it either.

So, right away, let me make two things clear about all this.

First, I certainly have nothing personal against Martin: by all accounts he’s a widely respected figure in the world of college basketball — and he’s also someone who has plenty of local folks who admire him for being such a high-quality individual. As a matter of fact, we published a glowing letter from one passionate admirer of Martin not that long ago.

But the bottom line tells you that over past three seasons, Martin has only slightly won more games (51) than he’s lost (45). That’s reality. And if that reality doesn’t scream “mediocrity” to you like it does to me, you must be yelling “La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!” on an endless loop while covering your ears.

So, again, this isn’t personal. It’s just numbers.

Second, I fully take on board what USC athletics director Ray Tanner had to say in an email reply he provided —through the university — when I asked for a comment on the pay gap between Staley and Martin.

Here, in full, in the response I got from Tanner:

“All of our head coaches receive compensation competitive with their counterparts among their respective sports in the Southeastern Conference and around the nation. We believe the compensation packages, including salary, benefits and incentive packages stand out in each sports’ market for head coaches. We do not comment on individual coaches’ contracts since it is a personnel matter.”

OK, fine.

But, hey, I drive by USC’s beautiful, gleaming Darla Moore School of Business building every single day.

And I’d love to see the grade that a USC business school professor would give to a student who presented a mock business plan that called for paying a manager who regularly won national recognition for her division’s performance more than $1 million less than another manager whose group — for whatever reason — consistently performed at an average to middling level.

If the professor gave anything other than an “F” to a proposed business plan that absurd, they would deserve to be racking up failing grades of their own on RateMyProfessors.com.

So, yes, I absolutely do appreciate Tanner’s take on the pay disparity between Staley and Martin.

But I also absolutely don’t buy it.

Look, there’s no getting around the fact that at minimum Dawn Staley should be receiving just as much to coach basketball at USC as Frank Martin is getting to do so at the university.

That should be simple logic.

So when will the simple math match it?

Opinion Editor Roger Brown can be reached at (803) 771-8464 or rjbrown@thestate.com. Follow him on Twitter @RBrown_SCOpin.

This story was originally published March 12, 2020 at 7:11 AM.