ESPN’s $920 Million Not Enough as Dawn Staley Makes Urgent Plea for Women’s NCAA Tournament

What is women’s college basketball worth? It can be argued that there are more superstars in the women’s game today compared to the men’s. Nevertheless, ESPN’s $920 million deal with the NCAA continues to receive shots with the latest one coming at the hands of a familiar critic. After Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks dominated the Texas Longhorns on their way to the championship game, their third in the past four years, Dawn was asked about the appointment of new Women’s Basketball College Association president, Jose Fernandez.

Head Coach of the University of South Florida since the 2000-01 season, Fernandez was named Vice President of WCBA in July 2024 before being promoted, making him President till 2027. Dawn described him as “Somebody that’s really gonna move the needle” and expects him to focus on what women’s college basketball needs at this juncture.

“I don’t know if he can get that—open up negotiations for a new television deal would be nice. We need our own television deal so we can understand what our worth is,” Staley said. While record-breaking viewership in the 2024 NCAA Tournament alone warrants this need, it isn’t the first time Dawn has drawn attention to the topic.

While she considered ESPN’s eight-year, $920 million deal to cover 40 NCAA Championships, including women’s basketball, a step in the right direction, she had voiced the need for a separate television contract even before the long-term deal was signed.

“It should happen,” Staley said in 2023, emphasizing removing women’s basketball from the NCAA bundle. “We’re at that place where we’re in high demand. I do believe women’s basketball can stand on its own and be a huge revenue-producing sport that could do, to a certain extent, what men’s basketball has done for all those other sports, all those other Olympic sports and women’s basketball. I do believe we’re at that place now.”

The 2023 edition of the women’s tournament was a historic one. The second round saw a 30% increase in viewership, with an average of 615,000 viewers, and the first round saw a 28% increase, with an average of 391,000. So when the infamous ESPN deal followed next year, Dawn made sure to not downsize the impact of the deal.

“I would much rather see it stand on its own, but there’s progress and I know things won’t happen overnight, I think this deal lends some respect to our sport and that’s what we’re searching for.” While a separate deal would help women’s college basketball earn according to their fast-growing merit, the deal in place worth a reported $115 million per year, is more than three-times the NCAA’s previous deal and creates the possibility for revenue units based on merit, similar to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

“I do think you will start seeing administrators realize that we are revenue-producing, we are a revenue-producing sport. That’s one of the things that are holding us back. Yes, we needed the television deal, yes we needed to be on TV and we need to keep bringing exposure to our sport but we’re in a good place,” Staley further added.

Although the ESPN deal was considered a monumental one, critics across the country believed women’s college basketball could now stand on its own feet and eat its own bread.

As Dawn Staley pointed out, the future is bright

An increase of more than 300% per year on what the previous 14-year deal with ESPN was paying the association was surely appeasing but still far from the valuation they believed women’s college basketball deserved. NCAA’s media consultant, Endeavor’s IMG and WME Sports, estimated about 57% of the value of the deal — or $65 million annually — to be tied to the women’s March Madness tournament, which is almost half the estimated worth between $81 million and $112 million per year, independent media expert Ed Desser had estimated in 2021.

Beyond the 2023 championship’s 9.9 million viewers, the 2024 Women’s Final Four—featuring Iowa’s Caitlin Clark in her final collegiate run—averaged 12.3 million viewers, a 285% surge from 2021. Regular-season games also saw spikes; Iowa’s matchup against Ohio State on March 3, 2024, drew 12.3 million viewers on Fox, the highest-rated regular-season game since 1999. These figures dwarf viewership for many of the other championships in the ESPN package, like men’s soccer (averaging 0.5 million viewers for its 2023 final) or women’s volleyball (1.1 million for its 2023 championship). Why, then, tie women’s basketball to these smaller properties?

Upon exploring their options, Endeavour consultants, alongside the NCAA, chose to bundle all sports, fearing smaller championships might go unsold. “I wanted the best deal for everybody,” NCAA president Charlie Baker said in 2024. Layoffs at major networks, declining ad sales, and streaming platforms grappling with subscriber churn—Disney, ESPN’s parent, reported a $1.5 billion streaming loss in 2023. So, a cash-strapped environment was the norm back then. Therefore, ESPN, with its willingness to pay $115 million annually, offered security that other bidders couldn’t match.

While women’s college basketball is in the best place it’s ever been, the wrong step ahead could mean a reversal of the popularity the league has gained. With the 2025 edition registering numbers that ought to be labelled underwhelming when compared to yesteryears, many are wondering if the rise in popularity was simply due to the “Caitlin Clark Effect”.

The bundle provides a safety net in the form of a long-term deal that could keep women’s college basketball financially afloat even in the case of a decline in their viewership. While a safety net never sounds bad, it might be time for the bird to leave its nest, or it may never be able to fly at all.