Women’s March Madness Could Finally Get $25M in ‘Units’

August 7, 2024

On Tuesday, the NCAA’s Division I Board of Directors released a proposal for distributing a pot of up to $25 million in prize money in the women’s March Madness tournament, starting with the 2025 event.

The proposal, which will not see a final vote until the NCAA convention in January, is the culmination of several years of advocacy from athletes, coaches, and other stakeholders. All have said that the performance fund is a key element in achieving gender equity between men’s and women’s basketball in D-I. The men’s tournament has long enjoyed a prize money system of its own, based on participation and prowess in men’s March Madness, but the women have never had one. (Men’s teams earn their conferences about $2 million per game played in the tournament.) FOS