The Future of NCAA Women’s Basketball
Photos by CNN, the New York Times, and the NCAA
It is no question that support of women’s sports has been severely lacking over the years. Examining basketball specifically, there is always a debate putting emphasis on how much more entertaining the men’s side of basketball is. While there is no doubt men’s basketball is exhilarating and fun to watch, women’s basketball brings a different form of excitement that people need to be more honed in on.
In 2010 alone, for the NCAA women’s basketball championship game, 3.531 million Americans tuned in to watch the University of Connecticut Huskies take on Stanford University. Compared to the women’s NCAA national championship, the men’s national championship game in the same year had 23.9 million viewers watching Duke University take on Butler University. Such a drastic difference in the number of viewers is disappointing.
In addition to women receiving less viewership, the women who compete in the NCAA tournament have received very little in merchandise and resources compared to the men’s teams. Prior to the 2021-2022 NCAA basketball season, the women’s teams were treated exponentially different from the men’s teams. Some of the female players took to social media to share their experiences and illustrate the stark contrast in gender treatment. Examples of these differences include merchandising or the goodie bag that athletes who are in the tournament receive, the women’s bags were significantly smaller than the men’s bags, the men received decked out lounging areas while the women did not, even with the men receiving a full weight room while the women got one small rack of dumbbells.
Photo by The Today Show
After the 2021-2022 season came to an end, the NCAA vowed to make changes in the ways they treated the men’s teams versus the women’s teams. They pledged, with the tiniest details, everything between the two genders of the sport would be equal. Many women’s collegiate coaches were pleased with the equality but questioned why it only came when the light was drawn to it and when it was publically shared on social media.
Overall, women’s NCAA basketball has been treated significantly differently in importance compared to men’s NCAA basketball. That was until this past season.
Viewership was at an all-time high for women’s basketball this past season. The national championship game between Louisiana State University and the University of Iowa shone a light on so many talented individuals, including Angel Reese of LSU and Caitlin Clark of Iowa, exemplifying to fans across the country that women’s sports are just as competitive and exciting as the men’s. That national championship game attracted 12.6 million viewers, which made it the most-ever watched event in ESPN+ history and became the most-viewed NCAA women’s game in history.
A game-changing event, like this past national championship, sets a precedent that shows everyone the value of women’s basketball. It highlights the need for equality and continues to create anticipation for seasons to come.
