The NCAA distributes money from championship competitions to conferences separate by sex. Since a male sport can generate more revenue, those distributions are higher. What if all income from male and female championships for a sport are combined to determine a share value? This change may give schools a reason to invest in a sport regardless of sex that might give them the best profit alternative.
The NCAA is a non-profit association of United States universities. The representative of association members is either a school’s President, Chancellor, or Director of Athletics.
The NCAA operates championships for competitive sports based on the members’ wishes.
The NCAA generates revenue from the championship events from sponsors and media licenses (i.e., TV money).
After expenses, the NCAA returns event profits to the conferences. Rather than writing a check to Duke and Alabama, the checks are payable to the ACC and SEC. The conferences then spread the money to their member schools.
The most significant NCAA championship events are “March Madness,” the Male and Female Division I Basketball Tournaments. The NCAA treats these two tournaments are separate profit pools.
There are 68 participating schools in each tournament, and each conference is represented by at least one school.
With 68 schools, there are 67 games and 134 school games. For each game a conference’s school plays in the tournament, the conference receives 1/134th of the profit, called a share.
Since the TV contract for the Male Tournament is higher, a share for a male team is much higher than a share for a female team.
What would be the effect of the NCAA consolidating the profit pools from the male and female tournaments into one pool? This change would make it 136 teams, 134 games, and 268 school games. A share would be 1/268th of the profit.
Athletic programs may realize their female teams may drive more money to their programs and emphasize the building of quality female teams. They may start providing more resources to the female teams to match their male programs.
The NCAA team sports with male and female competitions are Basketball, Baseball/Softball, Soccer, Ice Hockey, Lacrosse, Volleyball, and Water Polo.
Their individual sports with male and female competitions include Indoor Track, Outdoor Track, Cross Country, Swimming and Diving, Golf, and Tennis.
Each sport would have a separate profit pool, just not additionally separated by sex.
There are still single-sex sports, including Football, Wrestling, Rowing, Field Hockey, Beach Volleyball, and Gymnastics. These would still have individual profit pools to split.
Could we use the same theory with US national soccer teams? Put all revenue and expenses into one pool, paying the players and coaches the same regardless of sex. As of May 18, 2022, USSF decided to pool revenues with equal splits between sexes.