Lady Toppers to retain head coach Greg Collins, portion of salary to help boost NIL efforts

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Following the conclusion of the 2025-26 WKU women’s basketball season, Hilltopper director of athletics Todd Stewart shared in a statement that head coach Greg Collins will return in his role next year.

“Greg Collins will return as our Women’s Basketball Head Coach next season. Multiple donors have made a significant commitment to the program’s NIL fund and our major Women’s Basketball benefactors want this. Coach Collins is also making a financial commitment. As a result, the program will have substantially more resources available with respect to NIL in building a roster for 2026-27 than we had in 2025-26,” Stewart said.

“Coach Collins has been a part of 286 wins with our program, including 132 as head coach, and he has helped 10 players earn All-Conference honors. The team won 23 games a year ago, and I am confident our new resources will result in significant and notable improvement immediately. This program has a history of 20-win seasons, competing for conference championships and reaching post-season tournaments and these goals are the expectation of our program.”

Collins has the third-most wins in E.A. Diddle Arena as women’s basketball head coach (74), behind only hall of fame coaches Paul Sanderford and Mary Taylor Cowles.

He has also met or exceeded CUSA Coaches Preseason Poll expectations in five of his eight seasons as head coach of the Lady Toppers.

“I apologize to our fans for this season. We clearly fell way short of the expectations this program deserves, and no one is more disappointed than I am,” Collins said. “The collegiate athletics world has changed dramatically, and we did not meet the new challenges this season. We do have a detailed plan for significant improvement, and I appreciate the new NIL commitments by our donors that will immediately impact our program. I also will be devoting a portion of my salary to our program’s NIL pool. We will soon return to winning at the magnitude this program expects, and I am more committed than ever to take this program to the level it belongs.”