In the high-stakes world of college basketball, South Carolina Gamecocks women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley is one of the best — raking in rewards for her team’s stellar performance. After leading her top-seeded squad to the Final Four in the women’s NCAA Tournament on March 31, Staley earned a $150,000 bonus. It marks her fourth consecutive Final Four showing.
Bagging Bonuses
This season alone, she’s banked an impressive $240,000 in bonuses, underscoring both her team’s success and her prowess in the coaching arena. Her bonus before Sunday’s was $50,000 for taking the Gamecocks to the Elite Eight on Good Friday.
She is raking in the big bucks because she also has orchestrated a perfect season for the team. After the March 30 win over the Denver Beavers, 70 to 58, her squad is gunning to be the first women’s team since UConn’s dominant 2015-2016 run to finish without a single loss.
The way Staley’s contract is laid out, she received $15,000 for her 11 SEC regular season wins and an additional $75,000 for SEC regular season titles, according to USA Today.
She was awarded $25,000 for the SEC tournament title in the same season as the regular season title.
For personal achievements like being SEC coach of the year, she received $25,000 also.
Just by making it to the NCAA March Madness tournament, she received an additional $25,000 and also received $25,000 for making the Sweet 16.
This last $150,000 bonus is not the last of the bonuses she could get for the season.
She will a staggering $250,000 if they win the NCAA title.
Should the Gamecocks clinch the national championship, and if Staley nabs either the Associated Press or Naismith National Coach of the Year honors, she could see her bonus tally swell to a staggering $680,000 this season, a slam dunk for her winning season.
With a salary of $22.4 million over seven years, Staley is currently the top-paid Black women’s coach, regardless of the sport.
Staley’s contract starts with a base salary of $1 million per year and supplements it with outside compensation that began at $1.9 million in the first year, increasing by $100,000 each subsequent year. For the 2021-22 school year, she pulled in a total of $2.9 million
By the end of her contract, she’ll be making an annual salary of $3.5 million.
Staley’s hefty paycheck reflects her transformative impact on South Carolina’s women’s basketball.
Under her leadership, the team has soared, reaching six Final Fours in the nine NCAA Tournaments since 2015. With two national championships already under her belt in 2017 and 2022, Staley and her squad have their sights set on clinching a third title in the upcoming 2024 NCAA Tournament.
I read today where She has won the Naismith National coach of the year award and it’s well deserved as she took an almost completely new lineup into play this year and is undefeated thus far quite a fete