The N.C.A.A. declined to make Baker or any other official available for an interview, saying in a statement that it “is open to any and all new and creative ideas — including potentially having stand-alone contracts — to generate revenue to support student-athletes and continue to grow all sports, including women’s basketball.”

The N.C.A.A. has hired Endeavor, a global sports media company, to help develop its strategy for negotiations, which have not yet begun. Baker has said he expects a rights deal to be completed around the end of the year.

“The N.C.A.A. is a very political organization, and you’re living in a different world of politics than you were 10, 15, 20 years ago when these deals got struck,” said Chris Bevilacqua, a sports media analyst who previously advised the N.C.A.A. on media rights. “There are 500,000 N.C.A.A. student-athletes, and half are women, so there’s going to be a lot of political pressure to architect something that is consistent with that narrative of investing in women’s sports.”

That pressure stems from a 2021 N.C.A.A. basketball gender equity review, which was commissioned after widespread disparities were identified between the N.C.A.A. men’s and women’s basketball tournaments during the pandemic.

In the report, Ed Desser, a sports media analyst, estimated then that if the rights to the women’s tournament were sold on their own, they could have fetched between $81 million and $112 million for the 2025 tournament.

ESPN paid close to $50 million for the 31 championships this year, including the women’s basketball title game, which drew a record 9.9 million viewers on ABC.

“The value has only increased” since his estimate two years ago, Desser said in an interview. He cited not only the increase in attention for the women’s tournament, but increasing interest in professional women’s basketball and soccer leagues.