March Madness Daily: A tale of two UConn stars
Paige Bueckers will make $78,831 in the WNBA next season. Teammate Azzi Fudd will make more--potentially a lot more--as a rookie in 2026.
Welcome back to Club Sportico, where we break down the intersection of sports and money—with an extra bit of humor and opinion. Today, we look at two UConn stars.
Eben: UConn women’s basketball stars Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd are both eligible for the WNBA draft. Only one will hear her name called next month.
Fudd announced Tuesday that she will return to UConn 🐕 for a fifth season. Two days later, Bueckers confirmed this would be her last year with the Huskies. Their situations are not identical—Bueckers will be the No. 1 pick; Fudd would have gone later in the first round—but there’s a bigger potential subplot here.
The WNBA and its players union are currently negotiating a new labor accord, which will take effect before the 2026 season. The players chose to opt out of the current collective bargaining agreement (CBA) early, seeking to capitalize on sizeable gains in league attendance, viewership and revenue. We’ve written about the dynamic before, and while I don’t know exactly how it nets out, I do know this: W players are set for a sizeable pay raise starting next season.
What does that mean for Bueckers and Fudd? Possibly a large difference in pay. CBAs include a rookie salary scale—a structured max contract for first-year players depending on where they are selected. After Caitlin Clark was picked first overall by the Indiana Fever, she signed a four-year deal that paid her $76,535 as a rookie. There was no real negotiation. That was the deal. After Bueckers is drafted by the Dallas Wings on April 14, she’ll sign a four-year deal that pays her $78,831 for her first season.
Had players not opted out of the current CBA, next year’s top four picks would’ve had starting salaries of $81,196. But that number will almost certainly go up under a new labor accord. Fudd, if all goes well at UConn next season, will make significantly more than Bueckers as she starts her W career, even if she’s picked significantly later in the first round.
Part of this has always been true—rookie pay has inched up in the W for each of the past 12 years1. But the dynamic has never been as stark as it is right now. Not only are W players on the verge of a massive jump in pay next year, but college stars are also making money in ways they couldn’t just a few years ago. Fudd’s recent NIL deals include Bose, Nespresso, Door Dash and Madison Reed. UConn will also be able to share athletics revenue with her starting next year.
Fans often overlook the many ways that new labor deals impact league business, both on and off the court. Sponsors and media partners spend less money when there’s labor uncertainty—that’s why most leagues time their media talks to come right after new labor peace is secured2. Athletes, especially those in the NBA, also frequently structure their contracts to hit free agency when salaries rise under new CBAs or new media deals. NBA commissioner Adam Silver said for the past few years that labor peace was pre-requisite before owners began discussing expansion.
Fudd didn’t mention the labor talks specifically in he first public comments since her announcement, but I’d be shocked if it wasn’t at least a consideration.
In unrelated news, UConn coach Geno Auriemma went off this week on the NCAA for how it structures the women’s tournament. It’s worth a watch 👇
Fudd, Bueckers, Auriemma and the Huskies 🐕 face Oklahoma 🤠 in the Sweet Sixteen at 5:30 PM ET tonight on ESPN.
Programming note: We’ll be sending daily business nuggets throughout the NCAA tournaments. If that’s not your thing, you can opt out of daily March Madness posts by updating your settings here or with the button below. We’ll return to normal programming in April.
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This is notably NOT true in more developed men’s leagues. Because no incoming rookies are actually in the players union at the time of CBA talks, rookies have no real advocates. The first pick in the 2010 NFL Draft, Sam Bradford, signed a rookie deal worth six years and $78 million. The following year, under a new CBA, top pick Cam Newton signed a four-year, $22 million rookie contract.
The W did not have this luxury because its media rights were sold alongside the NBA’s. The NBA’s new CBA kicked in last season, after which it turned to the broadcast talks.