Sources: LSU, Mulkey agree to record $32M deal

Coach Kim Mulkey, who led the LSU women’s basketball team to the NCAA title in April, has agreed to terms with the school on a new 10-year contract worth $32 million, sources confirmed to ESPN. The deal must still be approved by the LSU board of supervisors, which meets on Friday.

When finalized, Mulkey’s $32 million deal will be the richest total contract in women’s college basketball history.

The news was first reported Wednesday by The Advocate in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which obtained the information through a public records request. Mulkey’s compensation will keep her right at the top of the highest-paid women’s basketball coaches in the country in terms of average annual salary, along with the UConn Huskies’ Geno Auriemma and the South Carolina Gamecocks’ Dawn Staley.

Auriemma, who has won 11 NCAA titles, had his contract extended in May 2021 to take him through 2025; that deal was for $15 million and was retroactive to 2020. It’s estimated he earned $3 million this past season.

Staley, who has won two NCAA titles, agreed to a seven-year, $22.7 million deal in October 2021 and also earned an estimated $3 million this past season. The Gamecocks were the top-ranked team and unbeaten until falling in the national semifinals to Iowa. Then LSU beat Iowa for the Tigers’ first NCAA title in women’s basketball.

It was the fourth championship for Mulkey, 61, as a head coach; she won three with the Baylor Bears before returning to her native Louisiana in the spring of 2021 to take over at LSU. She initially signed an eight-year deal that would pay $22.5 million before incentives.