Women's teams will join men in getting paid for March Madness games, NCAA votes
Starting with the 2025 NCAA Tournament, women's college basketball will receive financial "units," paralleling the long-established system for men's teams. These units represent multi-million dollar payments given to conferences based on the number of games played in the March Madness tournament. This significant decision came after a unanimous vote by NCAA membership, signaling a pivotal step toward addressing long-standing financial disparities between men's and women's college sports.
The push for equitable financial treatment intensified following the 2021 Kaplan Report, which highlighted several gender disparity issues within NCAA sports, particularly the stark differences observed during the pandemic-era tournaments. The women’s tournament was played in a limited environment in San Antonio, while the men’s tournament enjoyed a more expansive setup in Indianapolis. In response to public outcry, the NCAA adjusted the women’s tournament to mirror the men’s 68-game format and approved the use of “March Madness” branding for women's competitions.
Recent agreements, such as the eight-year, $920 million deal between the NCAA and ESPN, have helped solidify the financial value of women's sports, with the women’s NCAA Tournament now recognized as a $60-million-per-year entity. As advocates for gender equity in sports pushed for unit payments, the NCAA took swift action to rectify these imbalances, with calls echoing from coaches, players, and stakeholders alike.
The distribution of funds will initially amount to $15 million over three years for the Women's Basketball Fund, with projections to rise to $25 million by 2028. While this is considerably lower than the men's units, the new structure means that a team reaching the Final Four will bring approximately $1.3 million for its conference over three years—this is a monumental shift for conferences and teams that previously received nothing for women’s performances in the tournament.
Many, including past advocates like Atlantic-10 commissioner Bernadette McGlade, see this vote as a long-awaited milestone in women's basketball. McGlade, who chaired the women's basketball committee two decades ago, felt optimistic about the unanimous support among NCAA members and emphasized the significance of this decision for the future of women's sports. Following a record-breaking season, where the women's national title game attracted more viewers than the men’s for the first time, the commitment to improving financial equity in women's basketball marks a transformative era for the sport.