- Women's NCAA Tournament teams for the first will receive money for games they play.
- A reward system for men's March Madness teams has been in place since 1991.
- Last year's women's tournament was the highest rated ever but schools didn't get paid.
As March Madness got underway this week, the conferences with the most teams in the NCAA Tournament stand to make the most money thanks to a complicated “unit” system that rewards success.
And for the first time ever, women’s teams that make the Big Dance can cash in as well, though there’s a huge disparity in the dollar amounts compared to men’s teams.
The NCAA distributes a portion of its revenues to member conferences based on how their schools do in the tournament. Those payments are determined by “units,” which are earned for each game a school plays, not including the National Championship.
How much men’s tournament teams earn
Each of the 132 units up for grabs on the men’s side in recent years have been worth about $2 million, according to multiple reports. Conferences distribute the money, paid out over six years, to their schools as they see fit.
The NCAA brings in nearly a billion dollars in annual media rights fees from CBS and Turner Sports. The reward system allocates payment units to all 32 conferences with teams in the field, with additional units for at-large bids, and any schools advancing to subsequent rounds up until the Final Four, according to Front Office Sports.
Presumably, that amounts to $264 million up for grabs — about $128 million based on 64 available units this month and the $136 million already set for the 68 tournament teams.
The SEC with a record 14 teams in the men’s tournament put itself in prime position for a big payday.
Conferences want to see as many of their schools in the tournament as possible to raise the payout they receive. For conferences outside the Power Four, that money can represent a major portion of their annual revenue. When a Cinderella team makes it through multiple rounds, the payout can provide a much-needed infusion of cash.
Long time coming
The unit system for the men’s tournament has been in place since 1991. It took 34 years for the system to be applied to the women’s tournament, though on a much smaller scale. Until now, schools received no financial reward other than the NCAA covering the cost of a team’s expenses to play in the tournament.
“It’s progress … I think the frustrating thing for me — because I’ve been in the game for a while — is that we’re just now getting there for women. That should have happened a long time ago,” Georgia Tech coach Nell Fortner told SB Nation. “We’ve been held back, you know? And it’s like, why would we do that? Why did that happen to us? This should have happened a long time ago, when the women’s basketball Final Four started selling out.”
Courtney Banghart, president of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association and head coach at North Carolina, called it a milestone.
“It’s critical. Like, you want to talk about value in women’s basketball, then put some money on postseason success, right?” she told SB Nation. “I’m just glad for progress. And the progress is, we have units. And the progress is that women’s basketball is being discussed in the House settlement. That’s progress.”
House v. NCAA is the pending court settlement that will pave the way for schools to directly pay athletes for the use of their name, image and likeness.
How much women’s tournament teams earn
After the NCAA secured a media rights deal with ESPN for the next eight women’s tournaments at $65 million a year, it announced in January the reward system for women’s March Madness games.
For the 2025 tournament, the pool totals $15 million, making each unit worth about $113,000, according to The Associated Press. The fund will increase to $20 million, representing 26% of the women’s basketball media revenue deal. It goes to $25 million for the 2027 tournament, which is 41% of the revenue. The fully funded amount will be $25 million with a 2.9% annual growth rate, the same as all other Division 1 funds.
The 26% is on par with what men’s basketball teams received in the first year of the performance units program, according to AP.
In the women’s tournament, the Big 10 stands to make the most money with a record 12 teams making the Big Dance.
“Last season’s women’s tournament was the most successful ever, which included a record audience of 18.7 million for the title game won by South Carolina over Iowa and Caitlin Clark. The Gamecocks and Hawkeyes didn’t receive a dime from the NCAA for their efforts last year,” per AP.