NCAA Women’s Tournament TV rights could have different look

In the weeks before the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, the big focus was on improving the experience for players, including expanding the “March Madness” branding to the event for the first time.

Broadcast rights and the millions of dollars attached to them will soon bcome more of a priority.

The NCAA championships package — which includes the women’s tournament and 28 other title events, though not the men’s tourney — expires in August 2024. That means the bidding process for whatever packages the NCAA decides to market would likely begin next fall.

ESPN currently pays $34 million per year for that package of 29 events, which it agreed to in 2011. The Kaplan Report, which was commissioned by the NCAA after glaring inequities between the 2021 men’s and women’s tournaments were brought to light, estimated that the women’s tournament could have a market value of $96 million to $101 million per year as a separate package.

Will the NCAA try to sell the event as its own product? It is a question on the minds of many in the women’s game, including South Carolina coach Dawn Staley who wants to see tournament teams cash in just like the men.

NCAA President Mark Emmert said last week before the Final Four that all options are on the table.

“We’re heading into just the right period to be looking at and determine the best approach going forward for a new contract,” he said. “Whether that’s splitting up sports, whether that’s keeping some of it together, we’ll have to determine that, and we’ll have to work with outside experts, as we always do, who provide the necessary data and expertise in all of that.”

South Carolina’s 64-49 victory over Connecticut on Sunday night averaged 4.85 million viewers on ESPN, making it the mostwatched women’s championship game since 2004. It was also the fourth-largest audience for the title game since the network began airing the entire tournament in 1996.

The tournament overall averaged 634,000 viewers per game, a 16% increase over last year, with many of the rounds seeing their highest averages in more than 10 years. This was the second year that all games aired on at least one channel nationally instead of going to regional audiences.

It was also the second year that ABC aired four games the first weekend of the tournament while ESPN introduced an alternate feed for the Final Four weekend on ESPN2 with Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi providing commentary. The championship game aired at 8 p.m. Eastern; in previous years, tipoff was at 6 p.m. so the game would precede “Sunday Night Baseball”. That wasn’t the case this year after the basetball season was delayed due to the lockout.