The NCAA announced a massive eight-year, $920 million agreement with ESPN on Thursday. The deal, averaging $115 million annually, will cover 40 college sports championships each year, including the increasingly popular Division I women’s basketball tournament.

The announcement ends years of speculation about the NCAA's strategy to leverage the growing fanbase in women's sports, especially basketball.

It marks a significant financial leap from the NCAA's current contract with ESPN, which brings in $34 million per year. However, it has raised eyebrows as it values the women's basketball tournament at about $65 million per year, a figure some believed could be higher if negotiated separately.

“We said from the beginning that we wanted the best deal that we could get for all of our championships,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said, per Chantel Jennings and Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic. “There was a lot of informal conversation that took place with many other potential participants in this negotiation, but the one who constantly engaged and the one I would argue was the most enthusiastic in a significant way throughout the course of this was ESPN.

“The way they handled the negotiations demonstrated that this was really important to them, that it continued to be part of their portfolio. They will be a terrific partner, I think, going forward here.”

Women's basketball tournament will remain bundled

ESPN, women's basketball, NCAA women's basketball, NCAA tournament, March Madness

Despite the surge in popularity of women's basketball, spearheaded by teams like South Carolina and UConn and stars like Caitlin Clark and Sabrina Ionescu, the new contract does not fully test the tournament's standalone value. The deal also excludes the lucrative Division I men’s basketball tournament, which is separately contracted to Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery for nearly $900 million annually.

Significantly, this new contract, which begins on Sept. 1, assures that championship games in women's basketball, volleyball and gymnastics will be broadcast on ABC annually. The deal, which runs parallel to the men's tournament contract through 2032, offers the NCAA increased flexibility in future negotiations.

The women's title game last season, which aired on ABC for the first time, drew a record 9.9 million viewers. Despite the viewership success and the advocacy by prominent figures like South Carolina coach Dawn Staley for a standalone deal, the NCAA and ESPN have chosen to retain the bundled approach. The decision reflects a strategic choice by ESPN, as noted by its chairman Jimmy Pitaro, to maintain exclusivity.

“Retaining exclusivity was very important to us in a world of fragmentation,” Pitaro said.

While the contract marks a milestone, it also opens doors for future considerations, like the possibility of introducing revenue distribution units for women's basketball, akin to the men's tournament. This could further balance the field, addressing long-standing disparities highlighted in recent years, such as those brought to public attention by Sedona Prince's viral TikTok post in 2021.