ESPN and the NCAA have finalized a new 8-year deal (apparently worth $920 million, according to ESPN’s report on the deal) to cover pretty much every NCAA championship in all three divisions. The only ones I think they leave out are Division I men’s basketball (CBS/TNT), Division II men’s basketball (CBS, I think), rifle shooting, and skiing.
The problem is, a lot of people were expecting Division I women’s basketball to be part of a separate deal, presumably to start a bidding war of some sort, and the revenues from that would go to the schools/conferences in the same way that the money from the men’s tournament does. Since the deal is for all sports combined, somebody now has to take a guess as to how much of it should be used for the women’s basketball payouts. Right now, except for the men’s basketball money, all profits made from NCAA tournaments go to the NCAA - but reports are that the women’s tournament lost almost $3 million in 2019, and that was before the increased expenditures after things like the infamous men’s and women’s weight rooms pictures.