Something new is at stake in the women's NCAA Tournament: Money
For the first time since the NCAA began hosting a women’s basketball tournament in 1982, teams will be paid for winning postseason games.
For the first time since the NCAA began hosting a women’s basketball tournament in 1982, a deep run through the bracket will produce more than bragging rights or a championship banner.
Money is on the line, too.
Every game that a school plays between the First Four through the Final Four — making the championship game doesn’t count — will earn what the NCAA calls a “unit,” essentially one slice of the annual television revenue brought in from the NCAA’s media rights deal to broadcast the tournament. All units earned by a conference’s members during a women’s tournament will be paid by the NCAA to the conference, which then splits up the pool of money and redistributes it back to the schools over the next three years.
At stake this year are 132 units worth a combined $15 million, meaning that if No. 1 overall seed UCLA advances to the championship game, it would earn the Big Ten conference $1.3 million to be paid out through 2028. (Conferences use different methods to decide which schools receive how much.) That pool available for tournament teams will grow to $20 million in 2026, $25 million in 2027 and increase by 2.9% annually after that, the same rate as other Division I funds.
There’s a reason why the NCAA landed on this unit-based system: It is the same one that’s been used to reward men’s teams in the NCAA Tournament since 1991.
Rating: 5