South Carolina Navigates NIL Shift With Strategic Caution, Brutal Honesty from Dawn Staley
With the groundbreaking House v. NCAA settlement pushing college athletics into a new Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) era, universities across the nation are adjusting to the prospect of direct compensation for student-athletes. The ruling, which allows schools to distribute up to $20.5 million annually to athletes, has left programs scrambling to finalize their NIL strategies — and the University of South Carolina is no exception.
Newly appointed Athletics Director Jeremiah Donati took to social media to publicly affirm the Gamecocks’ commitment to fully embracing the settlement, stating the university will distribute the maximum amount permitted. However, Donati stopped short of explaining how those funds will be divided among sports, citing competitive and proprietary concerns.
“Well, one, (the settlement) needs to be approved, but we know what those budgets will be and we’ve already communicated that with coaches,” Donati said back in May, prior to the judge’s final green light. “All those budgets are set (but) that’s not something we’ll reveal publicly, just for competitive purposes. It’s proprietary, but all that stuff has been baked.”
The guarded approach comes in contrast to Georgia’s Athletic Director Josh Brooks, who initially disclosed a breakdown that allocated 75% of funds to football, 15% to men’s basketball, 5% to women’s basketball, and the remaining 5% to all other sports — a statement he later walked back, saying the distributions were still under consideration.
While Donati has taken a more corporate approach to the evolving NIL landscape, South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley is choosing brutal honesty — and not holding back. Acknowledging the uncertainty NIL brings to recruiting, Staley warned that athletes prioritizing financial gain might not be the right fit for her program.
“I don’t think we’re paying the most in the NIL space,” she said in a March postgame interview. “But I don’t even know if it’s fair, to be quite honest. It’s what it is.”
Staley went on to clarify her stance further: she’s not against players chasing money — just not with her team, if that’s their top priority.
“You either have it or you don’t in the NIL space, and then you just have to communicate that to agents, to parents and give them a choice,” she said. “You got non-negotiables, you got priorities. What are your priorities? Is it NIL? If it’s NIL, I’m quick to say, ‘Go get the money. Put it away.’”
And then came the kicker.
“If you want something different, a different experience, then we’ve been to five straight Final Fours,” Staley emphasized. “We know what that looks like and feels like and sounds like and what goes into that. We’re gonna give you a different experience, you know, that’s gonna cost you a few dollars.”
As schools nationwide brace for the seismic changes brought by NIL reform, South Carolina is walking a tightrope — blending strategic discretion from its administration with bold candor from its most decorated coach. With national titles and Final Fours under their belt, the Gamecocks are ready to compete — not just on the court, but in the financial trenches of modern college sports.
