Gamecocks fans can breathe a sigh of relief as Dawn Staley is here to stay! The legendary South Carolina coach’s contract extension has just been approved by the Board of Trustees, and it’s a big one. Staley has won three titles with the South Carolina team and has reached the Final Four six times. Having turned the Gamecocks’ culture to one of winners, Staley is being handsomely rewarded. This is now the largest coaching contract for women’s college basketball, which surpasses the $3.2 million held by LSU’s Kim Mulkey.

Dawn Staley is being extended with a base salary of $4 million, with a $250,000 escalator every year. She also gets a signing bonus of half a million dollars. The total contract amounts to $25.25 million over the next five years.

On top of the escalator, she will get other benefits depending on tournament results. What is even better news for the Gamecocks coach is that her salary won’t be taxed under a South Carolina house bill.

The Gamecocks are dominating the SEC tables once agian, remaining undefeated so far. Their frontcourt has great synergy! Joyce Edwards and Chloe Kitts lead the scoring averages for South Carolina while rebounding with good intent. The South Carolina team is stacked, and ready to make a title run this year. With Staley on board for the long run, it won’t be their only one. It looks like the Gamecocks organization is ready to compete for years to come.

Their biggest threat exists, however, in the LSU Tigers, who are unbeaten in their overall record thus far. With that exciting match-up coming up in the next few days, it will be fun to see whose winning streak gets broken.

Kim Mulkey and her Tigers have a competition

The LSU Tigers are not playing with their food. Mulkey’s team is soaring through the SEC, with Flau’Jae Johnson taking the lead. The five-ten guard is averaging 20 and 6 from nearly 50% from the field while leading her team to victory time and again. Although the Tigers are doing really well, they have a tough match on the horizon against the South Carolina team.

On Jan 23rd, the two unbeaten teams will clash at the Colonial Life Arena. Though both teams are undefeated so far, ESPN’s matchup predictor has USC with an 86.5% chance of winning. There are definitely things to prove for both parties. Staley has upstaged Kim Mulkey’s extravagant contract and will have to prove that she deserves to earn more than the LSU coach.

The Tigers, however, have to prove their mettle against the favored USC team. It will be interesting to see what direction this matchup goes in. But before facing USC, the Tigers will face Florida on the 18th. Similarly, USC’s next game is against Oklahoma on the 19th. If both teams remain undefeated, the first conference loss will be decided by their matchup.

What do you think? Will the LSU Tigers pull through against USC? Or will USC’s dominance continue? We will find out soon enough.