Women’s March Madness is flexing its financial muscle

The NCAA and ESPN have agreed to a new eight-year, $920 million media rights agreement that essentially covers all college sports outside of men’s basketball and D1 football.

The new agreement carries an annual value ~3x higher than the NCAA’s current 14-year deal, which expires on September 1. And, much like in a school group project, nearly all of the forward progress can be attributed to a single participant – women’s March Madness.

• The NCAA’s media consultant, Endeavor’s IMG and WME Sports, estimates ~57% of the new deal’s overall value ($65 million/year) is tied to the women’s college basketball tournament – or about 10x the sport’s value in the old, expiring deal.

Outside of women’s hoops, the agreement also covers broadcast rights to 39 other NCAA championships – 19 men’s and 20 women’s events – as well as exclusive championship coverage for women’s volleyball, women’s gymnastics, softball, baseball, and FCS football.

🏈 One interesting thing: The NCAA used to control the broadcast rights to D1 college football – by far the most valuable college sports media property – until a 1984 Supreme Court ruling ceded control to individual schools and athletic conferences.