NSIC (Division II) Women’s Basketball Coach Salaries
Head coach pay at the 16 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) women’s basketball programs, an NCAA Division II conference in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska, for 2026–27. Eleven schools are public, so pay is public record, but we could not check state payroll data for this report; five are private and publish nothing. Every dollar figure below is labeled Unconfirmed, and most are estimated ranges, not individual salaries. Men’s programs: NSIC men’s basketball coach salaries.
Key numbers
- Median head coach pay: about $87,500 across the 14 programs with a figure (range midpoints). Midpoints run from about $76,000 (Jamestown) to $159,771 (Minnesota State).
- Two programs hired head coaches in spring 2026: Minnesota Duluth (Brooke Olson, April 20, after Mandy Pearson left for St. Thomas) and Bemidji State (Madison McKeever, May 20, after Chelsea Stoltenberg resigned). We found no pay for either.
- Minnesota State’s Emilee Thiesse is the one exact figure, at $159,771. It comes from a compiled file that attributes it to the state payroll roster; we could not check it. Her team won the 2024 national championship and she signed a five-year extension from July 1, 2024 with terms not released.
- No NSIC pay figure here is confirmed from a contract, payroll record or news report. Treat every number as approximate.
Head coach pay by school
| School | Head coach | Pay | Basis | Source | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minnesota State (Mankato) | Emilee Thiesse | $159,771 | Reported figure | Unconfirmed | 2024 national champions; five-year extension from July 1, 2024 (terms not released). $159,771 is the file’s figure, listed as from the state roster; we could not check it |
| St. Cloud State | Lori Fish | $95,000–$110,000 | Estimated range | Unconfirmed | Head coach since 2008; 300 career wins |
| Augustana (private) | Nate Vogel | $85,000–$100,000 | Estimated range | Unconfirmed | Named 2024. Private school does not publish pay |
| Northern State | Paula Krueger | $85,000–$98,000 | Estimated range | Unconfirmed | |
| Southwest Minnesota State | Tom Webb | $85,000–$98,000 | Estimated range | Unconfirmed | Head coach since 2016 |
| Winona State | Ana Wurtz | $82,000–$95,000 | Estimated range | Unconfirmed | Head coach since 2022 |
| Concordia–St. Paul (private) | Amanda Johnson | $80,000–$95,000 | Estimated range | Unconfirmed | Head coach since 2016. Private school does not publish pay |
| Sioux Falls (private) | Travis Traphagen | $80,000–$95,000 | Estimated range | Unconfirmed | Private school does not publish pay. Picked third in the 2026–27 preseason poll |
| MSU Moorhead | Karlie Burris | $80,000–$92,000 | Estimated range | Unconfirmed | |
| Wayne State (Neb.) | Brian Ortmeier | $80,000–$92,000 | Estimated range | Unconfirmed | Second season. Named April 30, 2025 from Briar Cliff |
| Minot State | Ryan Clark | $78,000–$90,000 | Estimated range | Unconfirmed | Named spring 2024 |
| Mary (private) | Rick Neumann | $75,000–$90,000 | Estimated range | Unconfirmed | Head coach since 2012. Private school does not publish pay |
| Minnesota Crookston | Natalie Moynihan | $75,000–$88,000 | Estimated range | Unconfirmed | |
| Jamestown (private) | Thad Sankey | $70,000–$82,000 | Estimated range | Unconfirmed | Head coach since 2018. Private school does not publish pay |
| Bemidji State | Madison McKeever | Not disclosed | — | — | Named May 20, 2026 after Chelsea Stoltenberg resigned (11 seasons). Stoltenberg’s last reported range: $78,000–$90,000 |
| Minnesota Duluth | Brooke Olson | Not disclosed | — | — | Named April 20, 2026 after Mandy Pearson left for St. Thomas. Pearson’s last reported range: $90,000–$105,000 |
Sorted by pay (midpoint where a range is given). “Unconfirmed” means we found no payroll record, contract or news report behind the figure; it comes from a compiled conference file. “Estimated range” figures are not individual salaries. We found no change at the other 14 programs; most were checked only through 2025–26.
Women’s vs. men’s pay at the same school
| School | Men’s (midpoint) | Women’s (midpoint) | Men’s Ă· Women’s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Winona State | $109,000 | $88,500 | 1.2Ă— |
| Southwest Minnesota State | $112,500 | $91,500 | 1.2Ă— |
| MSU Moorhead | $102,500 | $86,000 | 1.2Ă— |
| Wayne State (Neb.) | $102,500 | $86,000 | 1.2Ă— |
| Augustana | $110,000 | $92,500 | 1.2Ă— |
| Minnesota State (Mankato) | $188,620 | $159,771 | 1.2Ă— |
| Minot State | $97,500 | $84,000 | 1.2Ă— |
| Northern State | $102,500 | $91,500 | 1.1Ă— |
| Sioux Falls | $95,000 | $87,500 | 1.1Ă— |
| Concordia–St. Paul | $95,000 | $87,500 | 1.1× |
| Minnesota Crookston | $87,500 | $81,500 | 1.1Ă— |
| Jamestown | $81,500 | $76,000 | 1.1Ă— |
| Mary | $87,500 | $82,500 | 1.1Ă— |
| St. Cloud State | $103,500 | $102,500 | 1.0Ă— |
Ratios compare estimates, so they are approximate. Duluth and Bemidji State are omitted because their women’s head coaches are new and their pay is not disclosed. The league-wide median gap is about $102,500 (men’s) to $87,500 (women’s), about 1.2Ă—.
What the numbers show
- The men’s-women’s gap is small in this league. At every school with both figures, men’s midpoints are within about 23% of women’s, and at St. Cloud State the two are essentially equal ($103,500 vs. $102,500).
- The women’s national champion is far ahead of the rest. Thiesse’s $159,771 is about 56% higher than the next-highest midpoint (St. Cloud State’s Lori Fish, $102,500).
- Two jobs changed hands after long tenures. Pearson led Duluth for 11 seasons and Stoltenberg led Bemidji State for 11 (85–197) before they left in spring 2026.
- Federal data shows a wider spread. Averaged across all women’s teams, Minnesota Duluth ($148,912) and Bemidji State ($128,898) pay head coaches the most; Mary ($57,787) pays the least. Those figures cover every sport and are not basketball pay.
Assistant coach pay
We did not find a payroll record, contract or news report for any NSIC women’s assistant coach. A compiled file lists assistants and associate head coaches at roughly $42,000 to $75,000, but we could not confirm any of it, so no assistant figures are published here.
School-wide averages (federal data)
Every college that offers athletics reports average coach pay to the U.S. Department of Education. These are averages per full-time coach across all women’s teams at each school (2024–25 reporting year), not basketball only and not individual salaries.
| School | Average head coach, women’s teams | Average assistant coach, women’s teams |
|---|---|---|
| Minnesota Duluth | $148,912 | $77,598 |
| Bemidji State | $128,898 | $83,977 |
| Minnesota State (Mankato) | $113,005 | $54,328 |
| St. Cloud State | $106,149 | $60,607 |
| Winona State | $89,186 | $59,430 |
| Wayne State (Neb.) | $85,313 | $47,215 |
| MSU Moorhead | $82,186 | $50,947 |
| Northern State | $78,039 | $41,129 |
| Southwest Minnesota State | $76,907 | $44,036 |
| Minot State | $76,762 | $76,740 |
| Concordia–St. Paul (private) | $72,074 | $45,102 |
| Augustana (private) | $66,304 | $52,821 |
| Jamestown (private) | $65,777 | $54,033 |
| Minnesota Crookston | $64,124 | $45,395 |
| Sioux Falls (private) | $61,332 | $31,373 |
| Mary (private) | $57,787 | $14,607 |
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act data, 2024–25 (ope.ed.gov/athletics).
Data notes
- Eleven member schools are public (eight in Minnesota, plus Northern State, Minot State and Wayne State), so their pay is public record, but we could not search state payroll databases for this report. Augustana, Concordia–St. Paul, Sioux Falls, Mary and Jamestown are private and do not publish pay.
- Nearly every figure is an estimated range from a compiled conference file, not an individual salary. The file labeled them “verified”; we found nothing to support that, so we treat them as unconfirmed.
- The NSIC’s 2026–27 women’s preseason poll was not fully available, so coaches other than the two new hires are confirmed through 2025–26 school announcements and game coverage. We found no other change announced.
Photo: Augustana women’s basketball in Sioux Falls. Runner1928, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; cropped.
Related
- NSIC (Division II) men’s basketball coach salaries
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