NCAA approves women’s basketball tournament financial units in historic vote

In a decades-long quest for reform in the NCAA, it can often be difficult to trace a tangible change to a single moment.

In women’s basketball, however, you don’t have to go back far to find a spark that brought about significant change. It was former Oregon Ducks basketball player Sedona Prince’s social media posts during the pandemic-restricted 2021 NCAA Women’s Tournament that had far-reaching impact.

Prince, now with the TCU Horned Frogs and is a named plaintiff in the lawsuit typically referred to as House v. NCAA, drew attention to the scarce weight room provided to female athletes in the San Antonio pandemic bubble for the tournament. Not only was it substandard in any way, it was a stark contrast to the facilities for the men’s tournament taking place at the same time.

The outrage over such unequal conditions for female athletes was swift and loud. The NCAA vowed to address that and the broader issues of gender equality in the sport, speaking to dozens of executives and commissioning an outside report that detailed problems and offered a number of solutions.

Some were simple to implement, such as better weight rooms and the same gift packs for men’s and women’s players. Others included a complete rebranding of the women’s tournament to use the umbrella term March Madness that was previously off limits.

On Wednesday afternoon in Nashville, one of the biggest and most significant parts of those recommendations inspired by Prince’s post came to fruition. The NCAA approved financial rewards — or tournament “units” — for teams that participate and succeed in the Division I women’s basketball tournament. The move brings a level of parity with the men’s tournament and adds an incentive for schools to invest in their programs even more.

“It was historic. It was monumental. There’s tons of adjectives we could use about it. Personally, it was kind of emotional, too, because it’s been a really long road,” said NCAA vice president of women’s basketball Lynn Holzman. “It takes often a significant moment in time before a really big turning point occurs. And around the pandemic and the championship in San Antonio was really that time. There was work and effort before it was done and we developed the sport. We grew the championships. But the significance of it is that it certainly brought more visibility, public scrutiny and attention from leaders with college athletics and the public at large.

“Four years on you see all the progress that has been made and this was a significant part of the Equality Report which still needed to be dealt with head on. Our membership today spoke to that.”

The units will first be earned based on play during this season’s tournament, culminating with the Final Four in Tampa during the first week of April. Schools will receive their cut in a pool of $15 million starting in 2026, with structured payments spread over the following three years.

The total value of the fund from which the money is distributed is set to escalate to $25 million in 2027-2028, largely a result of increased media rights revenue from the NCAA’s new deal with ESPN.

“This is a historic day for women’s sports, women’s basketball and the NCAA,” said NCAA President Charlie Baker. “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.”

Numerous former women’s basketball players in the room recognized the significance of the moment and talked about the long journey it took to get to this point.

UC Santa Barbara athletic director Kelly Barsky noted that her time as a basketball player at Keene State College helped shape her view of college athletics when she presented the proposal. Baylor President and NCAA Board of Governors Chair Linda Livingstone joked about her own career on the hard court when she memorably contributed to the motion that opened it up to a formal vote on the membership.

After the announcement, the motion was approved and ratified unanimously, rapturous applause overtook the room.

“Conversations around having a distribution fund for women’s basketball started about 25 years ago or so,” Holzman said. “It’s really the type of hope and the type of impact that people thought it could have on campus and at the conference level, to really continue to invest and elevate the sport — we hope that’s what continues to happen.”

The most watched game in women’s college hoops history has been set and broken again numerous times in just the last two seasons. Sponsorships and ticket sales have increased to the point where most consider it a revenue sport along with men’s basketball and soccer. There has never been a greater interest in what happens on the court from both the public and administrators tasked with guiding basketball even further into the future.

Wednesday’s vote marked another step in the right direction, sparked by drawing attention to an issue few knew enough to care about. This is no longer the case now, as change has come both relatively quickly and with much greater effect than most thought possible.