NCAA Announces Pay for Women's Basketball Tournament Success

In a significant development for women's basketball, the NCAA has proposed a new pay structure for teams participating in March Madness, as outlined in an email obtained by The Associated Press. The proposal, which awaits approval from NCAA membership in a vote scheduled for January 15, aims to allocate performance units to teams based on their tournament success. The initial funding will amount to $15 million in the first year, representing 26% of the women's basketball media revenue deal, with projections to increase to $25 million, or 41%, by 2028. This initiative mirrors the men's basketball performance units program, where the longer a team advances in the tournament, the more revenue their conference receives. Each unit generated approximately $2 million during the 2023 men's tournament, and the distribution of these funds is determined by individual conferences. Currently, men's basketball teams benefit from 24% of an $8.8 billion media rights deal over eight years, while women's basketball is set to receive $65 million per tournament under a new agreement with ESPN. The NCAA's revenue-sharing model has historically favored the men's tournament, which generated $844.3 million in television and marketing rights during the 2018 tournament. This funding typically flows from the NCAA to conferences and then to member schools, with over 300 Division I basketball teams eligible for the tournament. The women's tournament recently achieved record-breaking viewership, with 18.7 million tuning in for the championship game, highlighting the growing popularity and financial potential of women's basketball.