When it comes to women’s basketball in Kentucky, it’s Louisville and then everyone else

When it comes to the top level of women’s college basketball in Kentucky, there is a clear leader.

And that applies to both on-court performance and off-court investment.

Louisville is the gold standard among Kentucky’s eight NCAA Division I women’s basketball programs, and head coach Jeff Walz is paid as such.

The Herald-Leader obtained copies of the head coaching contracts for seven of the commonwealth’s eight Division I women’s basketball programs via the Kentucky Open Records Act. (Bellarmine, a private university, is not subject to public records requests, and the contract of women’s basketball head coach Chancellor Dugan was not able to be obtained.)

The findings?

Walz is by far the best paid women’s basketball coach in the commonwealth, and he has the on-court accolades to justify his big deal.

Louisville’s Jeff Walz rewarded for on-court success

Walz most recently reworked his contract with Louisville in March 2022.

He was paid $1.7 million in base salary to coach the Cardinals to an Elite Eight appearance in last season’s NCAA Tournament.

And that base salary will continue to rise.

He will be paid $1.75 million in base salary for the 2023-24 season, and that amount will increase by $50,000 each year for the rest of his contract. Walz’s deal with the Cardinals stretches through the 2028-29 season, and he will be paid $2 million to coach Louisville during that 2028-29 campaign.

There are also plenty of incentives on the table for Walz. That includes $50,000 each for winning (or tying for) the ACC regular season championship and winning the ACC Tournament.

Bonuses are also available for reaching the NCAA Tournament and advancing in March Madness, including $250,000 for winning what would be the first national championship in U of L’s women’s basketball history.

The Cardinals have twice reached the NCAA Tournament title game — 2009 and 2013 — during the Walz era.

Louisville has made the NCAA Tournament 14 of a possible 15 times with Walz, who is originally from Northern Kentucky. Remarkably, the Cardinals have made the Sweet 16 in 12 of those 14 March Madness appearances. This includes Walz guiding the Cardinals to their first Sweet 16 appearance in 2008, which came in his first season as U of L’s head coach.

Walz’s contract also features an “ambassador clause” similar to that of UK men’s basketball head coach John Calipari.

According to Walz’s contract, following the fourth year of the deal, or any year afterward, he has the option to transition to an administrative position in the Louisville athletics department that would pay him up to $500,000 annually.

Walz would have the option to move into this athletics department role starting in April 2026.

The figures are also high when it comes to Walz leaving Louisville prematurely.

Currently, Louisville would have to pay Walz $4.25 million if the school was to fire him without cause.

Should Walz himself want to leave, his buyout is $2 million.

Contract details for Kentucky’s Kyra Elzy

Kentucky’s Kyra Elzy is the closest to Walz in the women’s basketball landscape when it comes to annual compensation, and she remains about $1 million off.

Like Walz, Elzy also reworked her contract in spring 2022, fresh off winning UK’s first SEC Tournament in 40 years behind future No. 1 overall WNBA draft pick Rhyne Howard (who recently became an assistant coach at Florida).

Elzy receives a base salary of $400,000 per year, along with a sizable amount of money from multimedia deals and endorsements that she participates in through UK.

This season, Elzy will receive $375,000 in multimedia deal and endorsement money, and that amount will increase by $25,000 each season for the rest of her contract, which runs through June 2027.

This means Elzy will receive $775,000 to coach the Cats this season. That annual pay will grow to up to $850,000 for Elzy if she were to coach Kentucky in the 2026-27 season, which is the final season of her contract.

While Elzy’s contract also features incentives, she has rarely triggered them.

Kentucky’s 2022 SEC Tournament win netted Elzy an extra $50,000, but none of her NCAA Tournament-related incentives — such as receiving $75,000 for a Sweet 16 appearance — have been met yet.

It should be noted that Elzy’s potential bonus for winning the NCAA Tournament is $500,000, which is double the amount Walz would receive for the same accomplishment.

Elzy’s buyout is currently more than $2.5 million: If Kentucky was to fire Elzy without cause, the school would owe her the full remaining base salary and multimedia deal and endorsement money on her contract.

WKU women’s hoops bonus tied to ticket sales

None of the other six NCAA Division I women’s basketball coaches in Kentucky have taken their respective schools to the Division I NCAA Tournament.

Of those schools — Bellarmine, Eastern Kentucky, Morehead State, Murray State, Northern Kentucky and Western Kentucky — only WKU has had any recent trips to March Madness.

(Bellarmine made the 2016 and 2017 editions of the NCAA Tournament at the Division II level.)

The Lady Toppers made the Big Dance in each of 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018 seasons under former head coach Michelle Clark-Heard, a Louisville native who went on to be the head coach at Cincinnati and is now the assistant athletics director for women’s basketball at Mississippi State.

Now entering his sixth season as WKU head coach, Greg Collins is paid $200,000 a year in base salary and is under contract through June 2026, although Collins is set to receive automatic one-year extensions that would make this deal last through June 2029.

Collins’ contract with WKU also features one of the most distinct details found by the Herald-Leader among college coaching contracts in the commonwealth.

If Western Kentucky sells 1,500 public season tickets for its women’s basketball games inside the 7,326-person capacity E.A. Diddle Arena in a contract year, then Collins receives a bonus that’s equal to 5% of his base salary, which would be $10,000.

Further bonuses would be on the table for Collins for each subsequent increase of 500 public season tickets sold for WKU women’s basketball in each subsequent contract year. These bonuses would also be for $10,000.

Other women’s basketball coaching contracts in Kentucky

Here are the salaries for the 2023-24 season for women’s basketball head coaches at Eastern Kentucky, Morehead State, Murray State and Northern Kentucky:

▪ Greg Todd (Eastern Kentucky): $160,000.

An EKU alum and formerly the women’s basketball coach at Morehead State, Todd would receive at least a $20,000 bonus for guiding the Colonels to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2005.

▪ Cayla Petree (Morehead State): $96,000.

Petree will also receive $100 per game for her participation in media and other obligations for Morehead State. Among other incentives, Petree would receive a $2,000 bonus for each win over a top-25 ranked team (at the time of the game) in either the AP or coaches poll.

▪ Rechelle Turner (Murray State): $130,000.

Turner receives $110,000 in base salary and $20,000 for her participation in Murray State’s multimedia activities during each contract year.

If Murray State were to win the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament or receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, Turner would receive a $2,500 bonus. The Racers haven’t made the Big Dance since 2008.

▪ Camryn (Whitaker) Volz (Northern Kentucky): $156,083.

If NKU was to win the Horizon League Tournament championship under Volz, she would receive a $10,000 bonus.

A former UK assistant coach who starred in high school at Harrison County and in college at Western Kentucky, Volz was cleared in 2019 of emotional abuse of NKU players following an external review.