10-15-2023 Women to Watch - Flipbook - Page 9
The average pay for a women’s college basketball head
coach in the 2021-22 season was less than a fourth that
of a men’s college basketball head coach
Brenda Frese, the head coach of the University of Maryland’s women’s basketball team,
was paid $1.4 million in the 2021-22 season. That’s the sixth-highest pay of all women’s
basketball coaches that year, and pay is increasing. The highest-paid women’s basketball
coach 10 seasons ago was Tennessee’s Pat Summitt, who made just under $2 million or
$2.4 million if adjusted for inflation. Today, the
highest-paid women’s coach is Connecticut ‘s
Geno Auriemma, who made $2.9 million
in the 2021-22 season.
At least 11 women’s coaches made
$1 million or more in total pay and
three women’s coaches made over
$2 million. Two
of those three
coaches
are women.
#1
$3,100,000
$750,000
Source: USA Today basketball coaches salary database • Average is for coaches of teams in the
Atlantic Coast, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and Southeastern conferences and of teams outside those
conferences that appeared in at least three of the past five NCAA Tournaments. The men's average pay
Freepik
is being affected by a combined $9.5 million in one-time retention payments for three coaches:
Michigan State's Tom Izzo, Kansas' Bill Self and LSU's Will Wade. These payments account for 4% of
the men's coaches' total pay.
Leadership opportunities for women
in sports are lacking
Highest-paid NCAA basketball coaches
While all of the 10 highest-paid men’s basketball coaches are men, just five of the 10
highest-paid women’s coaches are women. The highest-paid women’s NCAA women’s
basketball coach was paid a little over 25% of what the highest-paid NCAA men’s basketball
coach was paid in the 2021-22 season.
Women's coach total pay
Female athletic directors
Male athletic directors
1995-96
2009-10
15.97%
Men's coach total pay
19.24%
1
2
4
2021-2022
5
24.91%
6
Source:
NCAA demographics
database, NCAA
7
demographics report
8
75.09%
9
Note: NCAA's
gender-based data
for athletic directors
10
Female athletes are four times more
likely to experience an ACL injury
than male athletes
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Total pay
Source: USA Today's basketball coaches salary database
Source: PBS News Hour
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begins in 1995-96.
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Rank
80.76%
84.03%
3
The percentage of athletic directors who are women has been
growing slowly since at least 1995. However, many women
who held leadership roles at their schools when the Association
for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women governed women’s
sports were demoted when the NCAA took over in the early
1980s.
When women do hold more leadership roles, those roles often
go to white women. From 2012 to 2022, the share of athletic
directors who are women of color grew just one percentage
point — from 3% to 4% — while white women’s representation grew from 17% to 20%.