On Thursday, ESPN and the NCAA announced a new rights deal beginning this September that will keep the collection of NCAA Championships with the network for an additional eight years. The landmark agreement maintains the long-standing relationship between the NCAA and Bristol which has seen ESPN provide championship coverage for dozens of sports across their family of networks and streaming platforms.
The headline for the new deal is that the women’s basketball tournament, which saw massive viewership numbers last year with LSU and Angel Reese defeating Iowa and Caitlin Clark in the championship game, remains as part of the championship bundle. In total, it includes 40 NCAA championship events with everything from women’s basketball and volleyball to baseball and softball to gymnastics and hockey and many more.
Via ESPN:
ESPN and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) have reached a new, eight-year agreement beginning Sept. 1, 2024, for NCAA championships media rights. The deal includes domestic rights to a record 40 NCAA championships – 21 women’s and 19 men’s events – and international rights to those same NCAA championships plus the Division I men’s basketball tournament.
“ESPN and the NCAA have enjoyed a strong and collaborative relationship for more than four decades, and we are thrilled that it will continue as part of this new, long-term agreement,” said ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro. “The ESPN networks and platforms will exclusively present a record number of championships, including all rounds of several marquee events that, together with the NCAA, we have grown over time. This unprecedented deal also further strengthens The Walt Disney Company’s industry-leading commitment to women’s sports and will help fuel our continued growth, including in the critical streaming space.”
The agreement continues exclusive coverage of sports included in the previous ESPN agreement – including all rounds of marquee NCAA Championship events (women’s basketball, softball, volleyball, gymnastics, baseball, FCS football, and more) – and adds coverage of the Division I men’s and women’s tennis team championships and the national collegiate men’s gymnastics championship. It also includes full rights for the men’s National Invitation Tournament (NIT) and Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT), as well as international rights for the Division I Men’s Basketball Championship. Division II and Division III also add coverage on ESPN platform of championships in men’s and women’s basketball and women’s volleyball.
For months, the speculation had been growing that the NCAA would try to carve out a separate rights deal for the women’s basketball tournament as they do for the men’s tournament which has its own contract with CBS and Warner Bros. Discovery. Interest in the event has never been higher with the number of stars that the game has grown. And yet, the NCAA chose a path that still included it as part of the overall package. NCAA president Charlie Baker spoke to The Athletic, saying it was valued at around $65 million per year as part of the bundle, but that the market was not agreeable to a standalone deal. At $115 million annually, it makes for more than half of the new agreement between the NCAA and ESPN, which is three times the value of their current one.
Via The Athletic:
Ultimately, the NCAA and ESPN agreed to keep the bundle and valued the women’s basketball tournament at about $65 million per year under its portion of the agreement.
NCAA president Charlie Baker acknowledged in an interview that selling women’s basketball on its own was not viable given the realities of the market.
“We said from the beginning that we wanted the best deal that we could get for all of our championships,” Baker told The Athletic. “There was a lot of informal conversation that took place with many other potential participants in this negotiation, but the one who constantly engaged and the one I would argue was the most enthusiastic in a significant way throughout the course of this was ESPN.
Importantly, the Athletic also states that the new contract with ESPN mandates that championship events for women’s basketball, volleyball, and gymnastics will air on ABC, providing more exposure for those sports. While it may be disappointing for those within women’s basketball that a separate deal couldn’t be made for the tournament, ESPN has been a willing partner in helping to grow the event over the years. And the NCAA probably saw that they needed the increased interest in the event to help get the entire package over the line. It’s also a win for ESPN because those NCAA Championships provide countless hours of programming for the linear networks and especially ESPN+.
It hasn’t just been women’s basketball on the rise though. Volleyball, softball, and other women’s college sports have seen great ratings increases in the last year. The continued support and platforms of ESPN should continue that growth over the next eight years.
