Women’s college basketball teams will be competing this weekend for more than a trip to the Final Four. For the first time, after years of pressure from coaches and other stakeholders, there is money at stake, too.
The men’s NCAA basketball tournament has paid out “units” for each spot in the bracket for more than 30 years. Those payments are equivalent to a portion of annual television revenue, with the money going to conferences, which then eventually redistribute the cash to schools. A national championship run can result in millions of dollars for a conference. There had long been advocacy for a similar format in the women’s tournament—not to pay out the same numbers as the men but to allow for any pay out from their revenue at all. Coaches argued that paying schools for tournament performance would incentivize schools to invest more in their programs, which in turn would raise the level of competition, grow the sport and potentially increase revenue and interest all around.
