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On January 17, South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley signed a contract extension, “that will go through the 2029-30 season and make her the highest paid college women’s basketball coach in the history of the sport.”
There’s no doubt that Staley is well deserving of this contract, which will start with a base $4 million salary and will increase by $250,000 each year. The program and culture she has built at South Carolina since becoming their head coach in 2008 is nothing short of incredible, which is proven by her three NCAA National Championships.
Given this staggering success, there’s no question that Staley has been courted by not only other colleges but professional basketball teams. And a January 17 article from Sportico revealed an interesting aspect of Staley’s new contract that pertains to her potentially departing.
“If Staley leaves USC before the end of the deal, she would be required to pay the school a departure fee equivalent to the compensation remaining on the contract. However, thanks to a new wrinkle in the agreement, that penalty wouldn’t apply if she departs for a head coach or assistant gig in the NBA or the WNBA,” the article wrote.
Despite her contract seemingly preparing for her potentially becoming a professional coach, Staley made it seem like she had no intentions of leaving when speaking with the media on January 19.
“I might up and leave,” Staley said with a laugh when asked about this clause in the contract, per the South Carolina Gamecocks YouTube account. “No, I mean you’ve got to have something. It’s a give-and-take. It was important for me to have a guaranteed contract… But in having a guaranteed contract, you’ve got to give them something.
“I would never leave here to go take another college job,” Staley continued. “I have the best of the best here. And I don’t have a passion for the next level. I don’t. I would have been gone, seriously. So to have [the clause] in there, it was just something fancy to have you ask me that question.”
That must be music to South Carolina fans’ ears.
