NCAA will finally pay women's basketball teams for March Madness games
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The NCAA took another step in the right direction on Wednesday, approving a pay structure for women's basketball teams who qualify for the NCAA tournament.
Men's basketball teams — and their conferences — have long been paid "performance units" for every game they play in the NCAA tournament. Each performance unit was worth about $2 million for the 2024 men's tournament, which means the Pac-12 received about $6 million for Arizona making the Sweet 16 last season.
Women's units will be worth far less, with a total of $15 million being awarded to NCAA tournament teams in 2025. The money will come from the women's basketball media revenue deal, and represents about 26% of the deal. The pot will grow to $25 million by 2028.
A women's team that reaches the 2025 Final Four could bring in about $1.26 million in units, paid out over the next three years.
"The long awaited, hard fought for and well-earned day is here ...," North Carolina coach Courtney Banghart, who is also president of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association, told the Associated Press. "I am so grateful for the effort of so many to bring this reality to our sport. Women's basketball is more popular than ever before, seats are filled, arenas are sold out and games are on national TV almost every night."
The 2024 NCAA women's national championship game drew a record 18.7 million viewers and the tournament had its most successful year ever. The women's title game outdrew the men's title game by nearly 3 million viewers.
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-029877d49238355bd3388a94f90e3c72.jpg "Ben Sherman")
Ben Sherman has been covering the sports world for most of his 27-year journalism career, including 17 years with The Oregonian/OregonLive. A basketball junkie, March Madness is his favorite time of the year.