Where Dawn Staley’s salary ranks among Final Four head coaches
This weekend’s Women’s Final Four is a who’s who of coaches in the modern era of the sport.
Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer and UConn’s Geno Auriemma rank first and second, respectively, atop the all-time wins list in women’s college basketball history.
Louisville’s Jeff Walz and South Carolina’s Dawn Staley have also quickly become two of the most recognizable faces in the game and represent the next wave of potentially all-time great head coaches.
So how is Staley compensated compared with her compatriots atop women’s college basketball? Let’s take a look.
Tara VanDerveer salary, Stanford
(1,157–207 career record)
VanDerveer still stands atop women’s college basketball as the sport’s all-time wins leader, turning Stanford into a national power during her 43 seasons as a head coach at the Division I level.
The former Indiana guard was reported to have made $2.28 million annually according to a 2016 tax filing, per Yahoo. More recent information has not been made available, as Stanford is a private school and, therefore, not subject to open records requests.
The Cardinal reached the NCAA tournament every year it’s been held outside of VanDerveer’s first as head coach in 1986. Stanford has won three national titles — including in 2021 — and reached 14 Final Fours under her guidance.
Geno Auriemma salary, UConn
(1,148–149 career record)
Auriemma’s name has become synonymous with women’s college basketball since he was hired as head coach at UConn in 1985.
He ranks just behind VanDerveer on the all-time wins list and has been one of the highest paid coaches in the sport for some time given his track record of success — which includes six undefeated seasons, 11 national titles and 22 Final Fours.
The 68-year-old agreed to a publicly announced five-year extension last year that paid him $2.8 million — a base salary of $600,000 and another $2.2 million for speaking, consulting and media obligations — during the the 2020-21 campaign. That latter mark is slated to increase by $100,000 each year of the deal.
Jeff Walz salary, Louisville
(402-108 career record)
Walz, all things considered, is a relative newcomer to the national scene.
He took over the program in 2007 and has done almost nothing but win since leaving Brenda Frese’s staff at Maryland. Walz has twice been the national runner-up and has four Final Fours to his name, reaching at least the Sweet 16 in 11 of his 13 NCAA tournament appearances.
Mississippi State targeted Walz to replace Vic Schaefer in 2020, but money became a hangup. Louisville rewarded his patience with an extension ahead of this year’s tournament that will pay him $1.7 million annually beginning in 2022-2023 and increase in increments of $50,000 over the life of the contract. He’ll be paid a $2 million salary in the final year of the deal.
Dawn Staley salary, South Carolina
(536-185 career record)
It’s hard to overstate the job Staley has done in turning South Carolina into a legitimate national power after taking over a program with a largely good but never quite elite history in Columbia.
She’s relatively young at just 51 years old after being hired from Temple in 2008. Staley has won 23 or more games every year since the 2011-12 season and boasts a national title, four Final Fours and five Southeastern Conference regular season titles.
South Carolina re-upped Staley in October with a seven-year contract worth $22.4 million deal that runs through the 2027-28 season and makes her the highest-paid head coach in the SEC. Her annual salary starts at $2.9 million per year, but reaches $3.5 million by the final year.
This story was originally published April 1, 2022 at 9:00 AM with the headline "Where Dawn Staley’s salary ranks among Final Four head coaches."
