ESPN and NCAA reach 8-year, $920 million deal for rights to women's NCAA tournament and other events
The NCAA women’s tournament is staying on ESPN.
The network announced Thursday that it had reached an eight-year deal with the NCAA to keep broadcasting the women’s basketball tournament and numerous other events. Overall, the deal is worth $920 million and includes the rights to 40 NCAA championship events.
Since the College Football Playoff is not run by the NCAA, the women’s NCAA tournament is ESPN’s biggest NCAA championship event as CBS and Turner have the U.S. rights to the NCAA men's tournament. The eight-year agreement gives ESPN the international rights to the men’s tournament.
“ESPN and the NCAA have enjoyed a strong and collaborative relationship for more than four decades, and we are thrilled that it will continue as part of this new, long-term agreement,” ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in a statement. “The ESPN networks and platforms will exclusively present a record number of championships, including all rounds of several marquee events that, together with the NCAA, we have grown over time. This unprecedented deal also further strengthens The Walt Disney Company’s industry-leading commitment to women’s sports and will help fuel our continued growth, including in the critical streaming space.”
The women’s basketball tournament has grown in popularity in recent years and thrived in a Sunday afternoon timeslot on ABC in 2023. LSU’s win over Iowa drew an average of nearly 10 million viewers and was the most-watched women’s basketball final ever.
The previous record was an average audience of nearly 5.7 million for the 2002 tournament title between Oklahoma and UConn. Overall, viewership for the 2023 women’s tournament was up over 40% from 2022.
Per the Sports Business Journal, the annual value of the new contract is roughly a three-fold increase over the current deal that expires at the end of this school year.
“The NCAA has worked in earnest over the past year to ensure that this new broadcast agreement provides the best possible outcome for all NCAA championships, and in particular women’s championships,” NCAA president Charlie Baker said. “Over the past several years, ESPN has demonstrated increased investment in NCAA championship coverage, and the Association is pleased to continue to provide a platform for student-athletes to shine. Having one, multi-platform home to showcase our championships provides additional growth potential along with a greater experience for the viewer and our student-athletes.”
Other events included in the deal are the FCS football playoffs, the women’s volleyball championship, and both the baseball and softball College World Series.
It also includes the NIT and the WBIT basketball tournaments. ESPN said in its release that “NCAA members will explore revenue distribution units for the women’s basketball tournament” because of the rights fee increase the network is paying the governing body. For decades, the two main revenue drivers for Division I athletic departments across the country have been football and men’s basketball.
Why women's basketball coaches want revenue 'units'
Women's basketball coaches, including those of the top two teams in the country, have pushed for revenue distribution units as a top priority after the Kaplan report detailed gender equity issues in the wake of the 2021 NCAA Tournament.
The NCAA currently pays out "units" to men's basketball conferences based on how far their teams go in the tournament. But it does not do the same for women's teams. In 2022, when South Carolina won the national championship, it didn't earn a dollar for it. The same season, the Big Ten received more than $18 million paid out over six years for having nine teams in the field, per the Associated Press. That money goes toward further investment in the program.
“Men’s basketball, they get units, and those units equal dollar signs," South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley said in March 2022. "I would like for us to divvy it up like the 68 teams get (their money) divvied up once the tournament ends.”
Coaches such as Staley have said paying units to the women's side is the best way to incentivize equality and promote investment from schools in their women's teams. A larger media rights deal is what coaches pointed to for it to happen as there would be more money at play.
“I think it needs to happen hand in hand,” UCLA head coach Cori Close said. “It was one of the major parts of the Kaplan report a few years back. As a new media rights deal is worked on hopefully by the NCAA for a standalone deal with women’s basketball in that space, I think there needs to be a meaningful unit distribution associated with that."
