What do WNBA stars Aliyah Boston, Allisha Gray, and A’ja Wilson all have in common? They played at the University of South Carolina for Dawn Staley, one of the most successful head coaches in the history of NCAA women’s basketball.
Staley is fresh off winning her third championship as the Gamecocks‘ coach, as her team put the ribbon on an undefeated 2023/24 season by defeating Caitlin Clark‘s Iowa Hawkeyes in last month’s national final. Although Staley signed a seven-year contract extension with South Carolina in 2021, the Basketball Hall of Fame inductee is expected to sign another new contract soon — and the financial figures could be historic, breaking new ground for a women’s basketball coach.
What will Staley’s new contract look like?
Staley last month began the fourth year of her seven-year pact with South Carolina — a program she took over in 2008, and where she has since rung up a 440-106 won-loss record. Staley will rake in $3.2 million next year, which ties her with Connecticut‘s Geno Auriemma as the second-best paid coach in the sport.
The best-paid coach? That would be LSU‘s Kim Mulkey, who led the Gamecocks’ SEC rivals to a national championship in 2023 and signed a 10-year, $32 million extension a few months later.
Staley is returning much of her 2023/24 roster next year, and the Gamecocks will likely open the 2024/25 season as championship favorites. When the first ball tips off in October, it might do so with Staley as the newly-minted top-paid coach in women’s college basketball.
