NEW YORK, N.Y. — The NCAA took a major step towards equity for its March Madness women’s basketball tournament on Wednesday, announcing that teams competing in the women’s tournament will be paid revenue-sharing units for the first time in 2025.
The decision was approved unanimously by the NCAA membership at its annual convention in Nashville, addressing a major disparity between the men’s and women’s tournaments that was highlighted by 2021 Kaplan Report. Men’s basketball teams have long received “units” — multi-million dollar allotments of revenue — for each game they play in the NCAA Tournament, and in 2024 the NCAA paid out roughly $264 million across the 64-team field with each unit worth approximately $2 million. Units for the men’s tournament are paid out over six years, while the women’s will be over three years, and go directly to teams’ conferences, which can divide the revenue among their membership as they see fit.
The women’s pool for revenue distribution won’t be nearly as large as the men’s in 2025 at approximately $15 million, and that will grow to $25 million by 2027-28. After reaching the fully funded amount of $25 million, the funds would grow at the same rate as all other Division I funds, which is approximately 2.9% each year. The addition of units for this year’s tournament comes after the NCAA signed a new eight-year, $920-million dollar media rights agreement with ESPN that includes 40 championships including women’s basketball, and the deal values women’s March Madness on its own at approximately $60 million annually. The women’s national title game between South Carolina and Iowa also out-drew the men’s championship in television ratings averaging 18.7 million viewers compared to 14.8 million for the men’s matchup between UConn and Purdue.
“I think that’s huge, just for women to continue to capitalize on what we brought to the sport and what we do for sport in general and entertainment,” UConn superstar Paige Bueckers said Wednesday. “Just to be able to be a part of that, we’re extremely grateful. I think it’s continued to grow as the sport grows, and so it’s a step in the right direction.”
The move was considered long overdue by many women’s basketball advocates, including legendary UConn coach Geno Auriemma. The Huskies have reached at least the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament for 30 consecutive seasons under Auriemma, and the team has played in the Final Four 23 times with a record 11 national championships to show for it — but without a dime of financial payout from the NCAA. In 2025, UConn could earn more than $1.2 million for the Big East with a Final Four appearance.
After leading his No. 6 Huskies to a 71-45 win at St. John’s on Wednesday night, Auriemma said the NCAA’s vote helped solidify the value of women’s basketball as college sports move into a new era.
“There is money being put on the table for broadcast rights and any other corporate investments, and the schools are going to be the beneficiary of that, as it should be,” Auriemma said. “Certainly it’s a statement that they made today about where women’s basketball fits into the big picture of college athletics … I think the onus is on the coaches and the players to keep getting better, because once you get the spotlight on you, now there’s an expectation, and we just have to keep meeting those expectations. Players like Paige…can do a lot to to push this thing forward even more so.”
Like Bueckers, Auriemma sees the new financial incentives as a way to capitalize on the rapid growth of women’s college basketball over the last four years. Units have provided program-changing additional revenue for conferences outside of the Power 4 on the men’s side, and Auriemma said the opportunity to have a second team contribute will hopefully lead to increased investment from smaller athletic departments in their women’s programs.
“A lot of the small schools, this is their this is their livelihood,” Auriemma said. “They they count on their men’s team making the NCAA Tournament, trying to go deep into the tournament. That is a huge, huge chunk of their revenue as a department, so to have another team you know within the department that can theoretically earn that, it’s great for the schools. It’s great for the future of the game, of the sport. It’s another step in the right direction based on what’s happened the last couple of years.”
