South Carolina’s Dawn Staley signs extension through 2030, becomes highest-paid coach in women’s basketball

Dawn Staley is sticking around at South Carolina. The Gamecocks head coach has signed a lucrative extension that will keep her in South Carolina through the 2029-30 season, the school announced Friday.

The extension starts with an annual salary of $4 million and will grow by $250,000 each year, making Staley the highest-paid coach in NCAA women’s basketball history. In total, the deal — which also includes a $500,000 signing bonus — is worth around $25.5 million.

Staley’s deal dethrones LSU head coach Kim Mulkey, who signed a 10-year, $32 million deal in September 2023 to stay with the Tigers.

Since taking over the program in 2008, Staley has led the Gamecocks to eight SEC tournament titles, eight SEC regular-season titles and six Final Four appearances — including four consecutive appearances in the past four years. She is a four-time Naismith Coach of the Year and a seven-time SEC Coach of the Year, having picked up both awards for the past three seasons.

Staley has led South Carolina to three NCAA championships (2017, 2022, 2024), which is third all time in women’s basketball NCAA titles. Only UConn (11) and Tennessee (eight) have more.

So far this season, Staley’s Gamecocks are ranked No. 2 and are 17-1 overall, with their only loss coming to No. 1 UCLA. South Carolina has hit a tricky part of its schedule, with the team facing five ranked SEC opponents in a row. The Gamecocks took care of the first two obstacles with wins over then-No. 5 Texas on Sunday and No. 19 Alabama on Thursday. However, South Carolina faces Mulkey’s No. 5 Tigers on Thursday in what should be an exciting matchup.