March Madness 2022 –Women’s Basketball Is Officially Part of March Madness and the Impact of NIL

The Final Four is set for both the Men’s and Women’s Brackets for NCAA Basketball.  While St. Peter’s Peacocks historic run had many of us rooting for the underdog, it was not to be.  The Men’s Final Four contains the familiar teams of Villanova v. Kansas and Duke v. University of North Carolina.

The NCAA Women’s March Madness Tournament is also down to their Final Four, which includes the familiar powerhouse teams of South Carolina v. Louisville and Stanford v. University of Connecticut. However, while these teams are familiar to the big dance, this is the first year that NCAA has permitted Women’s Basketball to use the term “March Madness” for its tournament. 

Last year, the inequities of how the men’s and women’s tournaments were treated were drawn into focus when University of Oregon player Sedona Prince posted a video showing the laughable disparity between the women’s “weight room,” which consisted only of a small rack of hand weights, and the giant men’s weight room with rows and rows of benches, free weights, and other equipment.  The immediate and public outcry resulted in further scrutiny about the inequities between the men’s and women’s tournaments, including Covid testing, food, broadcast and sponsorship contracts, etc., detailed in a 114-page report from civil rights lawyer Roberta A. Kaplan.

With its inequitable conduct on full public display, the NCAA’s hand was forced to make changes, including allowing the women’s tournament to use the term “March Madness,” which the NCAA had not previously allowed.  Additional changes included expanding the number of women’s teams in the tournament, increasing NCAA staff for women’s basketball, and shrinking (but not closing) the gap in funding.

This was not the only challenge the NCAA faced last year. On June 21, 2021, the US Supreme Court in NCAA v. Alstonruled that the NCAA restrictions on schools paying education-related expenses of student-athletes violated antitrust laws. In a concurrence, Justice Kavanaugh stated that the NCAA rules restricting student-athletes from receiving compensation or benefits from their colleges for playing sports also “raise serious questions under the antitrust laws.” As a result, just a few days later, on June 30, 2021, the NCAA Board of Governors approved an interim name, image, and likeness (NIL) policy allowing college athletes to earn compensation from use of their NIL and to engage with companies and agents that manage NIL activities with states adopting NIL laws in a piecemeal fashion.

Why do I tie NIL and Women’s Basketball March Madness together? Because investing in women’s sports and women athletes is good business.  On average, viewership for the NCAA Women’s March Madness Tournament is up 15% this year in the first two rounds, with an increase of 25% in the second round. In addition, this year’s tournament broke attendance records that stood for nearly 20 years. This increase of attention and investment also is on display with NIL opportunities.  Women athletes excel at social media usage (see the power of Sedona Price’s TikTok post above).  Women’s basketball accounts for almost a quarter of NIL compensation, trailing only football among all sports. And women's basketball posts on TikTok are earning $2,805 on average per post — more than football and men's basketball. UConn’s Paige Bueckers leads the pack with an estimated earning potential in NIL of $1 million per year, more than she would make playing for a year in the WNBA.  Many women college athletes will not have the opportunity play professionally, but due to NIL and a robust social media presence, they are able to make a return on their hard work and athletic (and social media) excellence while in college.

***Updated to note that according to Opendorse, for players playing in both the 2022 Men’s and Women’s Final Four, 4 out of the top 5 NIL earners are women: 1) Paige Bueckers (W. UConn); 2) Hailey Van Lith (W. Louisville); 3) Paolo Banchero (M. Duke); 4) Zia Cooke (W. South Carolina); and 5) Azzi Fudd (W. U Conn).

It's clear that the movement to more investment and more opportunity in women’s sports leads to positive returns.  And while I’m not in the prediction business, here’s who I have taking it all:

Men’s Tournament - Duke led by retiring Coach K

Women’s Tournament - South Carolina led by Coach Dawn Staley