The NCAA has named 12 institutions and five conferences to receive funds this coming fall through the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Marketing Grant Program, established “to grow women’s basketball from the inside out and at a grass roots level.” 

The NCAA also committed annual funding for a three-year program in an effort to specifically enhance Division I women’s basketball attendance.

Institutional award recipients for the 2008-09 academic year are Arizona State, Arkansas, Columbia, East Tennessee State, Florida State, Louisville, Maryland, Oklahoma, San Diego State, Texas Tech, Washington and Western Kentucky. Conferences selected are the Patriot League, Conference USA, and the Big Ten, Metro Atlantic Athletic and Northeast Conferences.

The recipients were selected from more than 70 applicants for annual grants ranging from $15,000-$100,000. An internal national office staff project team with a wide range of professional expertise, along with an external evaluation team from Hawkeye Sports and Entertainment, the NCAA women’s basketball marketing consulting firm, has spent the last two months carefully assessing and evaluating the submitted grants.

The submissions included current regular-season attendance figures as reported to the NCAA, project goals and objectives and a detailed explanation of the grant’s management model. Applicants also noted the target audience and a projected timeline for results.

“The membership’s response to this inaugural year of the grant program was impressive,” said NCAA Vice President for Division I Women’s Basketball Sue Donohoe. “We had a tremendous amount of interest. The evaluation and assessment was a long process, but it was good to see the creative ideas that were presented.”

This initiative is part of an overall effort to grow the game at a grass-roots level.

The idea for the marketing grant program came from the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Discussion Group, chaired by NCAA President Myles Brand. The group consisted of head coaches, media representatives, former student-athletes, and conference, institutional and Women’s Basketball Coaches Association administrators. Additionally, this initiative has been strongly supported by the Division I Women’s Basketball Committee, as well as the Division I Women’s Basketball Issues Committee.