Dawn Staley’s South Carolina Gamecocks are a national powerhouse, but their financials have started to creep up on them. No matter how deep they go in March Madness, they are in the red.
According to Sports Business Journal, the South Carolina women’s basketball program lost over $5 million last season. A major part of their spending is Staley and her coaching staff’s combined $7 million in salaries.
As compared to 2024, South Carolina lost $600K more last year. When it comes to the SEC, the following five programs operated at a larger deficit:
- LSU (-$8M)
- Texas (-$7.5M)
- Ole Miss (-$7.4M)
- Kentucky (-$6.6M)
- Arkansas (-$6.4M)
Moreover, South Carolina ($13M+) is first in the SEC, even ahead of LSU ($12.1M) and Texas ($10.9M) in terms of spending.
“In FY25, South Carolina ‘spent over’ $13M on its women’s basketball team, including over $7M in salaries for coach Dawn Staley, her assistants and support staff. The ‘only other SEC schools that spent more than’ $10M were LSU, which spent 12.1M, and Texas with 10.9M,” the SBJ reported.
After looking at the numbers, college basketball analyst Chad Withrow commented, keeping in mind the harsh reality that is popping up on the spreadsheet:
“Here’s the truth about numbers: they’re not sexist. The argument back to this from probably Dawn Staley or a lot of people who cover women’s athletics is, “Hey Sports Business Journal, why would you release these numbers? That’s sexist of you. You have a sexist agenda.” Spreadsheets aren’t sexist. Numbers aren’t sexist.
“The numbers don’t lie. The winning doesn’t lie for South Carolina. The overall record of Dawn Staley does not lie. They’re winning at a high clip, they’re winning national championships. I think the viewership for women’s basketball has been in a good spot since Caitlin Clark. The interest has gotten better in the sport. You can’t deny that either. But you also cannot deny a $7 million deficit on the spreadsheet.”
While the results are definitely there, the cost of the same might be too much.
Dawn Staley Hits Back on Criticism Over Budget
There’s a lot of noise going around Dawn Staley and South Carolina before their Final Four matchup against UConn. Staley tried answering the critics by defending their spending against the budget.
“I think coaches’ salaries are great for our game. I think even people who put articles about how much we spend on our budget—that’s great too,” Staley said in the press conference. “You can see that there is investment in women’s sports and women’s basketball.”
“A lot of times there’s not a great return on your investment, but for women’s basketball programs, when you pour in, it may not hit very similarly to what it would if you were in football or men’s basketball, not until our units get up to par,” Staley added. “Once they get up to par, I think we’ll be respected even more. There won’t be articles written on how much we’re spending against the budget.”
It’s clear Staley is seeing a vision which most of the analysts are not able to. But still the fact is South Carolina’s operations are not doing great behind the scenes.
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