Starting with the 2025 NCAA Tournament, women’s college basketball will finally have money “units,” just as men’s teams have done for years. Units are multi-million dollar payments awarded by the NCAA to conferences based on the number of games a particular team plays in the March Madness tournament.
The unanimous vote by NCAA members (292-0) was met with applause in the packed ballroom at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center. It was the latest step toward a pay structure after the Division I Board of Governors voted in favor of the proposal in August.
“I can’t tell you how excited we are to have the opportunity to compete with her,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said.
Public outcry against this disparity (among many others) between the men’s and women’s basketball teams began in the wake of the 2021 Kaplan report. This report outlined several gender disparity issues that had been present for years in NCAA sports but had become particularly evident After the 2021 NCAA Tournament, which was played in a bubble in San Antonio for the women and in Indianapolis for the men.
The NCAA acted quickly to adjust some of these differences, bringing the women’s tournament to 68 games like the men’s tournament by adding four play-in games and allowing the women to use March Madness as their NCAA Tournament branding.
Calls for unit payments got louder after the NCAA and ESPN signed an eight-year, $920 million deal for 40 leagues, including women’s basketball. The NCAA said it values the NCAA Women’s Tournament as a $60 million annual entity. With this money flowing into the women’s tournament — which has often been criticized as a “money loser” for the NCAA compared to the men’s tournament — coaches, players and stakeholders have called on the NCAA to act quickly to correct this gender disparity.
“It’s another step toward spurring more investment in the game at the college level,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “Distributing more revenue to more schools will only accelerate the growth of the sport.”
For years, at the men’s level, 132 units (one per team per game played) were awarded to conference championship teams. These payments extend over six years and are awarded to the team’s conference, which can distribute the funds as it sees fit. Last season, each unit was worth nearly $2 million apiece, meaning the ACC — which upset the NC State men’s run to the Final Four — received $34 million.
Without units, the NC State women’s team, which also reached the Final Four like the men’s team, received no money for the ACC.
But now, that will change. In the women’s basketball fund’s first year, $15 million will be spread out over three years (across 132 units), meaning a team that reaches the Final Four this season will receive approximately $1.3 million for its conference, paid out over the three years. Coming. . This fund will grow to $25 million by 2028. It is still less than the total value of the men’s units, which are worth more than $200 million.
“This is an important next step in our growing game,” UCLA coach Corey Close said. “I believe we are still scratching the surface of the financial assets that women’s basketball can provide our organizations. I am so grateful for the work you have put into this and I am more excited than ever for the starting point this will be for future increases and growth.”
For many, this is a great but long overdue move for women’s basketball.
Bernadette McGlade, Atlantic-10 commissioner, was chair of the women’s basketball committee in 1999 and 2000. In 2000, that committee became the first to work on a proposal to distribute the units, however, when it was sent to NCAA leadership, it did not happen. Get the necessary traction. They worked hard to lobby through leadership, but McGlade said members were not ready to acknowledge the women’s championship in that way at the time.
Twenty-five years later, McGlade was thrilled to be in the room Wednesday for the yes vote and see unanimous approval among NCAA members.
“I’m so glad I’m not retired yet and I had the opportunity to vote for him,” McGlade said. “It’s long overdue, but I don’t think people can worry about it, because it’s passed now, and it will change the future.”
The women’s NCAA Tournament is coming off its most successful postseason ever. The national title game between South Carolina and Iowa attracted 18.9 million viewers, beating the men’s title game for the first time in history.
Matt Baker contributed to this report.
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