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Last week the NCAA announced a plan to begin awarding units for the women’s basketball tournament. The proposal, especially combined with the House settlement’s proposal to pay athletes, marks a seismic shift in the business of women’s college basketball.
Background
Coaches have been asking for units for years. In 2021, the inequitable treatment of the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments by the NCAA made headlines.
In the wake of the scathing Kaplan report, the NCAA took several steps towards equality. It allowed the women’s tournament to use “March Madness” branding and expanded the tournament field to 68 teams, matching the men’s tournament.
The reaction from coaches across the country could be summed up as, “Thanks, but what about units?”
Last year the NCAA and ESPN reached a new rights agreement for the tournament worth about $65 million annually. It was a huge jump from the previous agreement, but still well below the $90 million the Kaplan report suggested was possible.
As interest in the tournament surged, climaxing when last season’s South Carolina-Iowa championship game drew higher ratings than the men’s game, irritated coaches again wanted to know when their programs would get a piece of the pie.
Last week they got their answer. The NCAA Board of Directors announced a plan to award units for the women’s tournament beginning with the 2025 tournament. The plan still needs final approval, but that vote is expected to be a formality.
What are units?
A few years ago I did a deep dive explaining what units are and how they work. The dollar figures have changed, but otherwise, it’s still accurate. You can read that HERE. If you prefer a short version, I’ve got that too.
Units are a little-known part of the NCAA men’s tournament. Teams earn a “unit” for each game that they play in the tournament (except the national championship game). Each unit is worth a certain dollar figure (it goes up each year, and was $2 million last year). That dollar figure is paid out over six years, and each conference distributes shares of the fund to its member schools.
It is important revenue for power conference programs, and absolutely essential for small schools, who could see their operating budget nearly double with one tournament upset.
(A quick aside: units are why Oregon State and Washington State continue to operate as the Pac-12. Because units are paid to the conference, all the money from, for example, UCLA’s 2021 Final Four run goes to the Pac-12. It is now distributed two ways instead of 12.)
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What are the dollars and cents?
Units for women’s basketball won’t be worth as much as men’s basketball. The fund that pays out units will start at $15 million for 2025-26 and rise by $5 million for the next two years until it pays $25 million for 2027-28. After that, it will rise at about 2.9% per year.
Some quick math (I’m rounding to keep the numbers simple and because the exact distribution hasn’t been made public) shows each unit should start around $230,000 and rise to around $375,000 in three years.
A championship run like South Carolina’s would earn about $1.1 million next year and about $1.9 million in 2028.
What does it mean?
On the men’s side, units are both a reward and an inducement. There is a tangible financial reward for making the tournament and advancing, and if you aren’t trying to win you aren’t trying to earn that $2 million.
That’s why women’s basketball coaches have been asking for units. Using the Gamecocks as an example, South Carolina (through SEC distributions) just finished collecting money on the men’s 2017 Final Four appearance and earned another $2 million for losing in the first round last season.
During the same time frame, women’s basketball has won three national championships, appeared in five Final Fours and two other Elite Eights, and never made a penny.
According to the Department of Education’s Equity in Athletics Data Analysis website, South Carolina’s annual budget is nearly $11 million, with revenue to match. So that $1.1 million, while certainly not pocket change, isn’t a game-changer.
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It would be for a school like South Carolina State, where the budget is a little over $1.1 million. The Bulldogs aren’t likely to make a Final Four run, but one unit represents nearly a quarter of their budget.
I looked up a few other universities and found a couple of good examples of the difference units could make.
Creighton reported just $1.1 million in revenue and NC State reported just over $1 million. The Bluejays’ 2022 Elite Eight run and the Wolfpack’s 2024 Final Four appearance would have nearly doubled the revenue for both schools.
They don’t get all that money directly, of course, but the idea is that a rising tide lifts all boats. The same goes for the one-bid leagues.
The post South Carolina women’s basketball: “Units” are finally coming to the women’s tournament appeared first on On3 .
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