Staley’s inequities fix? Pay women’s teams like men
The phrase “March Madness” is everywhere this women’s NCAA Tournament.
On scoreboards in place of team names during practices. Scrolling on video ribbon boards. On banners inside the arenas. On the courts themselves with a bit of TV magic through the first two rounds. On hats given to both women and men with swag boxes that are equal for both men’s and women’s players this spring after an uproar at the tourney a year ago.
It’s a start. It’s also not enough for the coaches and players — and presumably the NCAA. Growing women’s basketball is more than logos, gifts and an equal number of teams, now 68 for both for the first time. South Carolina coach Dawn Staley has an idea the NCAA can implement immediately to really help women close the gap with the men.
“The units,” Staley explained, meaning money. “Like men’s basketball, they get units, and those units equal dollar signs. I would like for us to divvy it up like the 68 teams get (their money) divvied up once the tournament ends.”
Men’s conferences get a unit valued this year at $338,210.96 for each NCAA Tournament game one of their teams plays. The money goes to each team’s conference paid out over six years with a true value around $2.03 million. That means the Big Ten will get more than $18 million thanks to having nine teams in this tournament field.
Stanford, the women’s national champion in 2021, got no money for making the tournament field. None of the 68 teams this season will either.
Sending money to the women’s programs is something that has to go through a handful of committees for the NCAA to make that happen.
It’s easier to pay the men thanks to the NCAA’S deal with CBS and Turner’s contract. The original contract averaged $770 million per year with an extension in 2016 jumping that per-year average to $1.1 billion in 2025.
“Now, it’s not going be what the men’s side is,” Louisville coach Jeff Walz said of revenue sharing, should it happen. “Just something would be impressive.”
The women’s tournament currently is bundled with other women’s championships for TV rights. The current contract with ESPN is up in 2024. ESPN is giving each game in this tournament its own window on one of its channels with four games on ABC for a second straight year.