While the NCAA didn’t sell the women’s basketball tournament separately last year, it did net a huge increase to the championship bundle that includes the tournament. And with that new media rights deal beginning with the 2024-25 academic year, financial changes will be coming to the women’s basketball tournament.
Per ESPN, the NCAA is aiming to include unit distribution for the 2025 women’s basketball tournament, similar to the structure that exists for the men’s tournament. On the men’s side, each conference receives a unit of revenue for each game a team from the conference plays. Each conference then distributes money based on the amount of units it receives to its schools over the next six years. Most, but not all, conferences evenly distribute money earned from units.
The women’s tournament doesn’t offer units, but that may change as soon as next year.
NCAA president Charlie Baker said the organization is aiming for next year’s tournament to introduce unit distribution to the women’s game, lining up with the new championship bundle deal with ESPN.
“We just signed a new contract with ESPN and women’s basketball is a big and important part of that deal,” Baker said. “It will also send a huge signal to women’s basketball generally about the fact you play in the tournament, you do well, you will benefit financially as well as in the other ways.”
ESPN announced its new deal with the NCAA for the championship bundle in January, paying $920 million over eight years. The $115 million annually is nearly triple the $40 million ESPN was paying under its previous deal.
Coaches in the women’s game have been advocating for units for years, including both South Carolina’s Dawn Staley and Iowa’s Lisa Bluder this weekend.
“You look at what the 68 teams are going to divide up, I think I saw $170 million between the 68 teams,” Staley said Saturday during her pregame news conference. “When you start bringing in revenue like that, it will move your campus in a different direction when it comes to women. So we’ve got to fight for that.”
“I know we’re going to get units coming up here pretty soon. That can’t come soon enough,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said Saturday. “Why are we waiting to put that in? Let’s do it now. Why wait? I think change has to happen a little bit quicker than what — they want to move.”
USC’s Lindsay Gottlieb spoke in favor of unit distribution last weekend, saying “Give us the units” among other comments. Staley and UCLA’s Cori Close were both outspoken about units last year, while Staley and Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer spoke about units in 2022.
For the NCAA to begin distributing units in the women’s tournament, it will first need to clear several committees to set the methods of distribution and the value of units. A full vote of the NCAA’s Division I schools would then take place in January.
Units being distributed in the women’s tournament would be a huge step forward for the health of the game, and hopefully, the NCAA will have a system in place come the 2025 tournament.
[ESPN]
