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The NCAA announced Wednesday that it has created a $15 million women’s basketball fund to reward conferences for their teams making and advancing in the NCAA tournament.
“Performance units” will be given to teams playing in the NCAA tournament starting in 2025 and will be distributed starting in 2026. Per the Associated Press, a team that reached the Final Four could bring roughly $1.26 million in financial performance rewards to its conference over the next three years.
The decision was voted on by the Division I membership at the NCAA Convention in Nashville, Tennessee.
“This is a historic day for women’s sports, women’s basketball and the NCAA,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said. “We have made investing in women’s sports a priority, and today’s vote means our members have the opportunity to do even more on campus to promote and support female athletes. I can’t wait to see all the incredible things they do.”
According to a release from the NCAA, the NCAA Board of Governors approved funds to create two revenue distribution categories and to increase their value to $25 million over three years. That means the funds will start at $15 million this year, increase to $20 million next year and will be at $25 million by 2027.
The $25 million mark is 41 percent of the women’s basketball media revenue deal.
Once the funds reach $25 million, they will increase at a rate of approximately 2.9 percent each year, the same rate as all other Division I funds.
According to the Associated Press, the new women’s fund is laid out similarly to the men’s basketball unit program, which has existed for years. The 32 conferences that receive an automatic bid to the tournament will each get a unit, and the conferences that receive at-large bids will receive additional units.
The conference will receive more units as its teams advance further in the tournament. Units for the 2024 men’s tournament were worth about $2 million.
Once a conference receives its units, it then decides the distribution of the revenue to each school.
The move comes as the NCAA continues to promote equality across men’s and women’s sports. Kennedy Todd-Williams, a women’s basketball player at Ole Miss and member of the Women’s Basketball Oversight Committee, praised the decision from the NCAA.
“Women’s basketball has so much to offer, not just to athletes, but to fans and communities everywhere,” Todd-Williams said, via a release from the NCAA. “As a women’s basketball player, I believe investing in our game is crucial to unlocking its full potential. By creating more opportunities and resources, the NCAA can help elevate women’s basketball to new heights and show the world just how incredible this sport is. Together, we can grow the game and inspire the future of women’s sports.”
Women’s basketball has continued to reach record viewership numbers over the past few years, with last year’s tournament garnishing a record 18.7 million viewers for the championship game between South Carolina and Iowa. The matchup between the Gamecocks and Hawkeyes drew 3 million more viewers than the men’s title game between UConn and Purdue.
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