Increased value of women's hoops shown in new NCAA broadcast deal with ESPN

Women's basketball has become the tide to lift the NCAA's omnibus sports boat.

On Thursday, the athletic organization and ESPN announced an eight-year, $920M broadcasting deal for all sports outside of football and men's college basketball that runs from this upcoming summer through 2032. While shorter in length than the current deal that's set to expire at the end of the 2023-24 academic year, which was for 14 years, it's a far more lucrative pact. ESPN paid $40M per year in its current agreement but will now pay more than $115M annually in the next deal, nearly tripling its previous yearly payout.

Under the agreement, 40 championships (21 women's events and 19 men's events) will be shown on the ESPN family of networks. Disney's sports arm will also have exclusive rights to all rounds of the national tournaments for several women's sports - basketball, volleyball, softball and gymnastics - as well as baseball and FCS (Division II) football. 

The announcement comes on the heels of landmark viewership for women's sports, notably basketball, volleyball and softball. In fact, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that the best-known student-athletes in recent years came from women's hoops such as Iowa's Caitlin Clark and LSU's Angel Reese. Going back to the late 2010s as women's college basketball grew in TV viewership, some of those most responsible have gone to become huge stars in the WNBA such as Las Vegas' A'ja Wilson and Kelsey Plum, New York sharpshooter Sabrina Ionescu and Indiana centerpiece Aliyah Boston. Olivia Dunne may be a well-known social media star, but she's an accomplished gymnast who has brought in major audiences to those events.

Although baseball and other men's sports have fervent fandom, it's the strength of women's basketball specifically that has given a boost to this deal. According to the NCAA itself, per Rachel Bachman of the Wall Street Journal, women's basketball alone represents $65M - or 57% - of the new deal's annual value. Some coaches and administrators hoped that women's hoops could carve out its own media deal in the same vein as their male counterparts, especially after how well the national title game between Iowa and LSU performed on ABC, ESPN's broadcast sibling. Yet this larger deal does reflect the increased value of the game like never before.