Women’s basketball teams finally will be paid for playing games in the NCAA Tournament each March just like the men have for years under a plan approved Wednesday at the NCAA convention.

At the center of the 2025 NCAA Convention is a gift shop. It is everything you imagine: T-shirts. Mugs. Keychains. Tchotchkes of all shapes and sizes. Among the sea of overpriced objects lies a group of branded items far more recognizable than even the ubiquitous logo of the association itself: the NCAA tournament section.

Beginning with the 2025 NCAA Tournament, women’s college basketball will finally receive financial “units,” just as the men’s teams have for years. Units are multi-million dollar payments the NCAA awards to conferences based on the number of games a given team plays in the March Madness tournament.