BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) — Western Kentucky coach Greg Collins is staying despite a second losing record in three seasons, and athletic director Todd Stewart made clear Monday it’s because both the coach and donors opened their wallets to boost the Lady Toppers’ name, image and likeness pool.

Stewart said donors made “significant” financial commitments along with Collins giving part of his salary to the program’s NIL fund. Keeping Collins also is what major boosters of the program wanted.

“I am confident our new resources will result in significant and notable improvement immediately,” Stewart said in a statement. “This program has a history of 20-win seasons, competing for conference championships and reaching postseason tournaments and these goals are the expectation of our program.”

Stewart said the new investment means Western Kentucky will have “substantially more” resources to build a roster next season than the Lady Toppers had available this season, which they finished 8-21. Eight of the losses came by five points or less.

Collins is 132-111 since taking over as Western Kentucky’s coach in 2018, and the Lady Toppers went 23-9 last season. The coach apologized for this season, saying the program didn’t meet the new challenges as college athletics “changed dramatically.”

“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,” Collins said.

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