New contract, pay raise coming for Dawn Staley at South Carolina. Here’s what we know
A new contract is coming for one of the University of South Carolina’s most successful coaches in school history.
Dawn Staley, the Gamecocks women’s basketball coach, is expected to receive a pay raise and contract extension as soon as next week, The State has learned from two sources with direct knowledge of the negotiations.
The exact financial details and length of Staley’s next contract were not immediately known, but the new deal is expected to bump her annual earnings over the $2 million mark.
In her current contract, she was set to earn $1.8 million for the 2021-22 season, not counting any bonuses for postseason accomplishments. The current deal runs through the 2024-25 season, when her annual salary climbs to $2.1 million.
After a 2018 contract amendment, the university began to contribute $300,000 annually toward a split-dollar life insurance program that, on Sept. 21, 2022, becomes Staley’s — a total of $1.5 million plus interest — with the only catch that she must still be the Gamecocks’ coach for that money to be paid out.
The next scheduled board of trustees meeting, where athletic contractual matters are presented and approved, is scheduled for this Friday, Aug. 20. Negotiations are ongoing — if talks were to extend through the week, the next scheduled board meeting is Sept. 17. The BOT can also schedule a separate meeting to approve the matter.
Staley for years has been the Southeastern Conference’s highest-paid women’s coach, but that changed when LSU this offseason hired Kim Mulkey away from Baylor and made her one of the sport’s highest-paid coaches. Mulkey will make $2.505 million this season, and her deal grows to $3.362 million in 2028-29.
At UConn, longtime coach Geno Auriemma received a contract extension in May. He’ll make $2.8 million this season, and that grows to $3.2 million in the final year of the deal (2024-25).
Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer was reported to make $2.28 million annually, as of 2016 tax filings. (Stanford is a private school.) Vic Schaefer is making $1.8 million in each of his three years at Texas. Arizona bumped coach Adia Barnes over $1 million a year in June after the Wildcats’ run to the national championship game.
Staley is coming off another undefeated Olympic appearance and gold medal win for the Team USA. Negotiations for a new deal with the Gamecocks have been ongoing this summer, one source told The State, but no conversations took place while Staley was coaching the Olympic team.
It has been a busy offseason for the Gamecocks’ leader, even before the Olympics. While coaching the 2021 USA Women’s AmeriCup Team in Puerto Rico, Staley acknowledged she had spoken with the NBA’s Portland TrailBlazers about their head coaching vacancy. The Blazers hired Chauncey Billups.
This will be her 14th season coaching at South Carolina. The Gamecocks have one national championship and three Final Four appearances in her tenure.
Everyone from the 2020-21 Final Four team is back. Staley also signed the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class and landed transfer Kamilla Cardoso, a former five-star prospect who was ACC Rookie of the Year in her one season at Syracuse.
After the national title run in 2017, Staley was given a new contract, which at the time made her the highest paid women’s coach in the SEC. It’s the last time her salary and contract length with South Carolina have been amended.
Staley’s current contract is similar to many of her peers in that only part of her income comes from a “base salary” — a figure that sits at $650,000. The rest comes from compensation via “television and radio shows; commercial endorsements; athletic shoes, equipment and coaching apparel.”
In the current year of the contract, that total from media rights money and endorsements is $1.15 million — for a total of $1.8 million, plus the $300,000 contribution from the university toward the insurance program. In the case of UConn’s Auriemma, the coach has a base salary of $600,000 and then an additional $2.2 million this season from the other forms of compensation.
Including the insurance incentive added after the 2017-18 season, Staley’s USC contract has been amended six times since she was hired.
In 2020, Staley won the Naismith Coach of the Year and AP National Coach of the Year prior to leading the USA women’s basketball team a gold medal in Tokyo. Staley has said she will not return as the USA team’s coach for the next Olympics.
Staley’s Gamecocks continue preseason workouts through the next two months. Official practices typically begin in early October, with the season tipoff in November.
— The State’s Augusta Stone contributed
This story was originally published August 14, 2021 at 1:39 PM.
