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Women’s college basketball popularity is up, but their revenue still lags behind the men’s teams.There is also a disparity in how much the women’s teams competing in this year’s Final Four earnIncreased viewership and NIL deals are expected to narrow the revenue gap.
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The popularity of women’s college basketball is soaring, but there is still a huge gap in how much money the teams make compared to the men.
The final four men’s teams still competing to win the NCAA Division I tournament averaged $19.3 million in annual revenue in 2022, nearly four times as much as the four women’s teams, which averaged $5.2 million, according to data from US Department of Education. Data from fiscal year 2022 was the most recent year available.
Major sources of income include conference television contracts divided among the member schools, NCAA championship competitions, sponsorships, and ticket sales.
On the men’s side, defending national champions the University of Connecticut reported $24.1 million in revenue in 2022, 56% more than North Carolina State, which produced $15.4 million, the lowest among the four teams in the 2024 men’s Final Four.
For the women, the University of South Carolina, which has won two national championships in the last seven years, led the way with $9.5 million. That is about 760% more than North Carolina State University, with the lowest revenue in the women’s Final Four at $1.1 million.
Revenue for the men’s college basketball Final Four schools:
University of Connecticut — $24.1 million
University of Alabama — $19.0 million
Purdue University — $18.9 million
North Carolina State University — $15.4 million
Revenue for women’s college basketball Final Four schools:
University of South Carolina — $9.5 million
University of Connecticut — $8.5 million
University of Iowa — $1.7 million
North Carolina State University — $1.1 million
Star power will narrow the gap
The good news for women’s college basketball is that with stars like the University of Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, Louisiana State University’s Angel Reese, University of Southern California’s JuJu Watkins, and University of Connecticut’s Paige Bueckers, more people are tuning in.
Iowa’s tournament win over LSU averaged 12.3 million viewers on ESPN, according to Nielsen. What’s more, only one of the first 64 games in the men’s tournament had a bigger audience, with North Carolina State’s win over Duke in the Elite Eight pulling in an average of 15.1 million viewers, according to ESPN.
Angel Reese during LSU’s national championship victory against the Iowa Hawkeyes in 2023.
AP Photo/Darron Cummings
A lot of that newfound popularity for women’s basketball can be attributed to the introduction of name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals, said Bruce B. Siegel, a partner in the entertainment and sports practice group at the law firm Greenspoon Marder. The firm also counsels and represents the Anchor Impact Fund, a NIL collective that works with athletes at Vanderbilt University.
NIL deals allow college athletes to earn money for promoting products or companies.
“I think NIL played a very significant role because now you can truly see the ability of the Caitlin Clarks, the Angel Reeses, the Flau’jae Johnsons of the world, the JuJu Watkins,” Siegel told Business Insider. “They can step out and be able to commercialize and be in commercials, be actively involved in social media, engage in sponsorships that really highlight them in a way that I think makes the whole fan experience a lot more exciting.”
It will take a while for the revenue gap to narrow
With this surge in popularity, revenue for women’s sports could see large gains.
The bad news is that any hope of narrowing the gap with men’s sports will likely take a while to come to fruition.
Many women’s college basketball teams are setting records for attendance and could see a subsequent revenue boost from ticket, merchandise, and concession sales. For example, 30 of the 32 regular season games for the University of Iowa’s women’s basketball team were played before a record-breaking or sold-out crowd. Schools that hosted the Hawkeyes increased their game attendance by an average of 150% compared to games against other schools, according to the Associated Press.
Paige Bueckers is one of the biggest stars in college sports.
Steph Chambers/Getty Images
However, the biggest source of revenue for college sports teams is the TV contracts, and those will likely take longer to grow for women’s teams.
For example, the NCAA’s television contract with ESPN to broadcast the championship events in 40 college sports, including women’s basketball, won’t expire until 2032. That deal is worth $115 million a year and must be shared among all the sports, although women’s basketball generates the most revenue and will get the largest slice of the pie.
Meanwhile, the NCAA sold the television rights to the men’s basketball championship separately from the other sports. The deal for men’s college basketball is worth more than $1.1 billion annually and also goes through 2032.
Those watching for the disparity in revenue between the women’s and men’s college basketball teams to narrow may have to be patient.
Correction: April 6, 2024 — An earlier version of the story misstated two names of schools in the Final Four. The University of Iowa and the University of South Carolina are in the tournament.
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