In a move to help close the pay gap between men and women in college sports, the NCAA will now pay Division I women's basketball teams who play in March Madness games starting this year.

Some pivotal games to watch this week (all games ET): • Utah at TCU, 7:30 p.m. Friday • USC at Indiana, noon Sunday • Seton Hall at Connecticut, 1 p.m. Sunday • Ole Miss at Mississippi State, 3 p.m. Sunday • Tennessee at Vanderbilt, 3 p.m. Sunday • Oklahoma at South Carolina, 3 p.m. Sunday

While it brings up questions, mainly surrounding its “Atlantic Coast Conference” name, it’s built up one of the most impressive group of programs in women’s college basketball. These are the top 10 players in the new-look conference made of athletes all over Tobacco Road.

Life is wild. Here we are, a quarter of the way into the 21st century and more than 52 years after Title IX was signed into law, learning that there was a big round of self-congratulatory applause in a Nashville ballroom this week because the NCAA finally did what it should have done years ago.

In a historic vote Wednesday at the NCAA convention in Nashville, the organization approved a plan to pay women's basketball teams for making the NCAA Tournament. Men's basketball teams have been reaping the benefits of the same revenue sharing plan for many years.

Starting with the 2025 NCAA Tournament, women's college basketball teams will earn financial "units" for their appearances and performance in March Madness.