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The University of South Carolina boasts one of the most successful women’s basketball programs in the nation – having advanced to the Final Four in seven of the past eleven seasons (winning three national championships along the way).
Head coach Dawn Staley‘s team has also led the nation in attendance in each of the past eleven seasons – including a program-record 16,437 fans per home game during the recently concluded campaign, per a school release.
Unfortunately for cash-strapped South Carolina athletics officials – who are about to be on the hook for more than $20 million in payments to student-athletes (on top of existing name, image and likeness deals) – the program is a consistent money-loser. Over the past three years, Gamecock women’s basketball has lost a whopping $16.77 million (an average of $5.59 million annually).
What gives?
Ever the über-woke crusader, Staley told The (Columbia, S.C.) State newspaper back in January that sexism was to blame.
“For all of the existence of women’s basketball, we have been held back,” she claimed.
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Never mind Staley’s massive $4 million annual contract (not counting bonuses) – which features sizable percentages of the program’s apparel and media deals and is slated to rise by $250,000 each year. That is the costliest contract ever for women’s basketball coach.
Obviously, Staley will go down in history as one of the best women’s basketball coaches ever. So, in that sense, the money is well-deserved. But if the program she’s running is losing millions of dollars year after year… why should a taxpayer-funded university continue to subsidize it?
Especially when she’s called the bureaucrats who gave her previous raises racist?
Here’s the inescapable math of women’s basketball at the University of South Carolina: a government entity is awarding Staley a mid-seven figure salary each year – with bonuses and benefits – even though the market has determined for years that the product she is producing isn’t worth the cost.
How is that a good investment?
These inconsistencies loom at the heart of the ongoing recalibration of collegiate athletics – which in South Carolina, really ought to be accompanied by reorientation of core government functions away from higher education. After all, according to state salary records, $1.8 million of Staley’s annual compensation comes courtesy of taxpayers.
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RELATED | STOP SUBSIDIZING HIGHER ED DEBT
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FITSNews has argued for years that higher education – or, increasingly, higher “indoctrination” – is not a core function of government and that colleges and universities should be set free to pursue their own destinies in the private sector.
“Institutions of ‘higher learning’ should compete for funding – and loans – in the marketplace based on the programs they offer,” I wrote back in December. “As should the students who seek degrees from those programs. In other words, if you can get a bank to lend you the money to pursue a degree in transexual Sanskrit studies or how whale farts contribute to El Niño … knock yourself out. Just don’t expect the American taxpayer to foot the bill.”
Indeed… and don’t expect them to foot the bill for a basketball program that, despite achieving unprecedented success both on the court and in the stands, cannot find a way to operate at a profit.
Nothing about the higher ed racket is sustainable, though. Per the Education Data Initiative, South Carolina’s $52.2 billion in total federal student loan debt works out to $38,770 per borrower – the seventh highest figure in the country. Certainly not all of that red ink is wasted, but it clearly isn’t boosting overall employment – or enhancing prosperity – in the Palmetto State.
This year, South Carolina “Republican” lawmakers are set to plow additional billions of dollars into this failed system… while giving a pittance of their record-setting $41.7 billion budget back to taxpayers.
Anyone want to guess how that’s going to work out?
Enough is enough. It’s time to completely privatize higher education – and its sports programs – so that government can focus on core functions and let the market handle the rest.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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19 comments
Good article and thanks for speaking truth! Cesar Millan could probably do Staley’s job and do it better, as well as cheaper.
I work at the chicken coop and am now in my 25th year of “higher education” and am now more convinced than ever that public universities should:
1. Drop all D1 type athletics to the level seen in Europe, basically all “school teams” and “sports programs” are eliminated in favor of “Club Sports” (Interestingly enough, USC had the #1 Club Sports Ice Hockey Team this year and the #1 Club Lacrosse Team last year)
How/why did college become the minor leagues for Pro sports?!?
2. Eliminate non-STEM majors for the most part. If you want to study Russian Literature, buy a book and start reading. Art, buy an easel and start painting. Spending $120,000 (the realistic cost of an in-state degree from USC) on a degree in “gender studies” is idiotic. If you must study art or literature in college, go to Furman or Wofford.
The only non-STEM fields I would make an exception for at state schools are languages, political science, international studies and some social sciences. Every degree would require two quarters of a foreign language, a class on economics, government/Constitution taught by non-tenure track experts (Judges/accountants/lawyers).
3. The academic year should be restructured into three quarters and all the silly holidays timed to be between quarters (again, like Europe). Spring (and now Fall) break is the biggest distractor to the “learning calendar” ever invented. Google “Michalemas school year” to see how it works)
A “four-year degree” should take 9 quarters on campus and include an extra quarter or two working in industry, a semester abroad etc. as appropriate. Every college degree should require a practical application semester of some kind.
Talking about dirt dumb this country has given taxpayers money to protect billionaires for life.How about something more important about why people shouldn’t be allowed to hold the country prisoner. While they support their millionaire buddies allowing them access to citizens private information. This is easy either South Carolina will figure it out or in this country of vultures someone else will give Daly a job. That’s how it works in Amerikkka.
Well said Will, thank you for saying the truth out loud.
Just wondering if we ran the same numbers and replaced it with football versus basketball…?
I wonder, if Dawn Staley was Don Staley and took “he” our football program to consistent National levels, would we have this conversation? I mean, how many sideline coaches are making over $300K with losing seasons year after year? Or should I say decades after decades? Seriously, we have spent some money and wasted plenty; the records speak loudly.
It is all about money, and I feel sure that we have wasted a lot more than a few million here and there. Keep digging, and I am sure you will find many more numbers that prove a “loss” but will still be spent to attract and gain new talented atletes that offset the “loss”. This is big business now, and we may have our stock ticker soon enough.
Nancy, you do realize even in losing seasons USC football makes a huge profit. Who do you think funds for the women’s basketball team and every other revenue losing sport?
Nobody cares about girls playing basketball. I support my team. Root for them every game. But it’s honestly boring. If people want to see layups and bad shots they can watch middle school boys play. There is a reason girls are staying 4 years in college and boys leave early. There is more money in college for girls than in the pros. The wnba loses money every year and has since it’s conception. It’s propped up by the nba in the name of inclusion. If it stood on its on it would have been bankrupt 20 years ago.
The only people watching women’s basket ball are their wives and girlfriends.
You can tell by the jarhead comments that there are sexist bare mouth nutters responding to this article. The author so called response to the problem is to privatize. Always the solution to greedy corporations to the detriment of the athletes. Privatize for profit not for the young women. How about making parts of the game more women friendly to add excitement. Bring down the goal so they can dunk. Make the ball smaller so that they can grip better. Sports for women can be life safers just like for men and boys. No one is worried about lacrosse or rugby. I’m sure they are making tons of money. ?
They already play basketball with a smaller ball and play softball with a larger, easier to grasp ball that they pitch from much closer while playing on a much smaller field – what else you got?
silly
The women’s ball already is smaller than the men’s ball… that change happened in the 1980’s.
Quit paying that
I love our Lady Gamecocks’ program – been to mutule games this year and watched all of their March Madness games, but wow – I didn’t know it was that much of a money loser. I actually thought their ticket sales and all other revenue sources were enough to justify Staley’s salary and all the NIL costs. – or at least break even. I find it laughable when women try to cry sexism about lack of support of women’s sports – and then you ask them to name 4 WNBA stars and they can’t do it to save their life. Ask just about any average guy to name 4 NBA stars, past or present, and they can rattle off 10 without even having to think hard. The problem is that average women don’t care about sports as much as average men – they would rather spend their time and money on other things. I can understand a sports program going red for a couple of years to attract a better coach, etc., but you can’t run in the red for 10+ years off the backs of taxpayers. If that is the case here, then it needs to stop.
NOTE: The State of SC each year gives less and less money to colleges. In the 1970s SC paid about 60% of a students tuition. Today, that is less than 12%. SC has more colleges per resident than any other State. It’s ridiculous the number of State supported colleges. The CFA and USC & Clemson’s support of destroying Small College Football teams: killed college sports long before NIL. If USC supporters want to continue giving money for Semi-Professional Sports. Then let them do it. Just stop all State money going to these sports. Also, USC has one of the most indebted college sports programs in the US. It spends money on sports with zero regard to common sense. But, as long as SC Taxpayers are not on the tab for this money: go ahead, spend it. If SC Taxpayers are on the bill tab, then stop the insanity.
Not even close – Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut are the top five states for colleges/universities per capita – even West Virginia with 1,700,000 hillbillies and “68 koleges” surpasses South Carolina’s schools per capita. Even in raw numbers, South Carolina, with 92 distinct colleges/universities isn’t in the top 10 for total number of schools.
When you include state supported scholarships and assorted grants etc. universities are being supported with an additional $7,000 in payments per student/year.
USC’s endowment was $952,000,000 last year – a significant portion of that came from offsets provided by the State House. Harvard on the other hand has an investment firm that manages theirs exclusively for “Havad”. They have the most f any university on earth at $51,000,000,000 (roughly the value of the endowments of the schools in 6th-10th place combined)
During the Clinton administration all the sanity checks on FFELP student loans were tossed out the door and the ceiling for permissible borrowed debt was jacked way, way up. At that point forward, the average rate of increase of public college tuition was roughly double the rate of inflation every year for the next 30 years.
All about money not the importance of graduating.half of these players aren’t any good. What’s there academic standing
Most athletes are in good academic standings… because they’re taking courses that most 7th graders could pass. What percentage of “student-athletes” are enrolled in STEM majors? The majority are enrolled in majors that will not get them a decent paying job if they even graduate. For every STEM major, you’ll have a dozen exercise sciences, sports management, sociology majors. Several of these majors are set up for online only courses so the “student-athletes” don’t even have to step foot on campus. The only time many are on campus are for practice.