Women’s college basketball teams “finally will be paid for playing games in the NCAA Tournament each March just like the men have for years” under a plan approved Wednesday at the NCAA convention, according to Teresa Walker of the AP. The unanimous vote by NCAA membership was the “final step toward a pay structure" for women playing in March Madness after the D-I BOG voted unanimously for the proposal in August. The women’s plan is “similar to the men’s basketball unit program,” where the "longer a school’s tournament run lasts, the more units the school’s conference receives." Each unit was worth about $2M for the 2024 men’s tournament. The lack of a units system for the women’s tournament has “been a point of sharp criticism." But now a women’s basketball team that reaches the Final Four could bring its conference roughly $1.26M "over the next three years in financial performance rewards." Under the new structure, $15M “will be awarded to teams” in the first year, which is 26% of the women’s basketball media revenue deal. That will grow to $25M, or 41% of the revenue, by 2028. The 26% is “on par with what men’s basketball teams received the first year the performance units program was established.” Men’s basketball teams now receive 24% of the media rights deal, which is $8.8B over eight years, starting this year. The women have a "higher percentage of the media revenue deal to bolster the value of each performance unit” (AP, 1/15).
NCAA to start paying women's basketball tournament teams under new structure
