The Historic Shift in NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament Earnings
For the first time since the NCAA introduced a women’s basketball tournament in 1982, teams making significant progress in the bracket will receive more than just accolades or a championship banner.
Financial Incentives for Success
There is now money at stake as well. Each game that a school competes in from the First Four to the Final Four — excluding the championship game — earns what the NCAA refers to as a “unit.” This is essentially a share of the annual television revenue generated from the NCAA’s media rights deal for broadcasting the tournament. Units accumulated by a conference’s teams throughout the women’s tournament will be paid by the NCAA to that conference, which will then divide the money among its member schools over the next three years.
Significant Earnings at Stake
This year, there are 132 units available, totaling approximately $15 million. If the top seed, UCLA, reaches the championship game, the Big Ten conference could earn around $1.3 million, payable through 2028. Each conference has its own method for determining how funds are allocated among its schools. This pool of money is projected to grow to $20 million in 2026, $25 million in 2027, and will increase by 2.9% annually thereafter, mirroring the growth rate of other Division I funds.
A Long-Awaited Change
The NCAA’s decision to adopt this unit-based system mirrors the approach used to reward men’s teams since 1991. Between 1997 and 2018, the total units collected by men’s teams from the Big Ten alone generated an estimated $340 million, according to a 2019 analysis by The Associated Press. In contrast, during the same period, women’s teams from prestigious programs like Connecticut, Tennessee, and South Carolina earned nothing.
The Case for Equality
In his book “Unpaid Professionals: Commercialism and Conflict in Big-Time College Sports,” Andrew Zimbalist, an economics professor at Smith College, advocated for a unit-based payout system for women’s basketball. Zimbalist noted that he and former NCAA President Myles Brand discussed rectifying the unfairness in funding based on performance.
A Call to Action
Zimbalist emphasized, “There was never any justification for this disparity.” The delay in implementing a payment system for women’s basketball has been rooted in the argument that the men’s tournament attracted a larger audience. Yet, Zimbalist argued, the women’s tournament also drew millions of viewers and could have appealed to even more if it received equal marketing support.
A Momentous Victory
When the NCAA council approved a fund for payouts earlier this year, Danielle Donehew, executive director of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association, regarded it as a “momentous victory” and a result of years of hard work. This progress was fueled by increasing visibility of the disparities between how women’s and men’s tournaments were treated, especially after female athletes highlighted the differences in facilities and resources in 2021.
The Push for Change
This pressure led the NCAA to conduct a gender equity assessment, revealing significant inequities favoring men’s basketball. The report from Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP criticized how the NCAA prioritized men’s athletics over women’s in various aspects, including revenue distribution and broadcasting opportunities.
New Opportunities for Women’s Basketball
The NCAA has since made changes, such as allowing the women’s tournament to officially use “March Madness” in its branding. As of January, the organization aimed to set unit payouts for women’s basketball on par with or even better than those for men’s games, which are disbursed over a six-year period.
Revenue Discrepancies Persist
Despite these advancements, the current financial landscape shows a stark contrast in earnings potential. The cap for this year’s fund for women’s basketball is set at $15 million, representing 26% of the NCAA’s annual revenue from its media rights deal with ESPN. Meanwhile, men’s teams are receiving about 24% of their tournament’s revenue, but the total pool available to them is over $200 million more than that of women’s teams.
The Role of Television
The vast difference in payouts can be attributed to television revenue. The men’s tournament began earning payouts in 1991 when CBS entered a lucrative broadcasting agreement, now worth hundreds of millions. The NCAA could have created a separate media rights agreement for the women’s tournament but chose to package it within a larger deal, limiting its earning potential.
Future Possibilities
As the media landscape evolves, experts are keeping an eye on whether the NCAA will spin off the women’s tournament into its own media rights package or continue to integrate it with the men’s tournament. Duke coach Kara Lawson expressed optimism about the progress made, emphasizing that even the initiation of payouts signifies a meaningful step for women’s sports.
“If your sport proves itself to be a moneymaker in this environment, all of the constituents of that sport get rewarded,” Lawson concluded.
