TAMPA, Florida — Once again, it’s the people who should most want to promote the women’s game who are holding it back.
For all the strides it’s made since the great weight room debacle of 2021, the NCAA is still short-changing the women. A TV contract that undervalues the women's NCAA tournament. A format that undersells the fanbase and does a disservice to the “student-athletes.”
How many more times do the women need to prove themselves before the NCAA gets that this is not a passing fad?
“I don't want to come across as somebody who is ungrateful or all that because I've benefited so much,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said Saturday, a day before his Huskies won their 12th national title.
“But I do think that sometimes we are being held hostage by tradition. 'This is the way we've always done it. It's easy. It's simple. It's uncomplicated.' But why? Why not go out there and look at what other people are doing and take their best practices?” Auriemma said. “Because it can make us money and it can put us at a higher profile.”
There is no question the NCAA is doing better by the women’s game than it was five years ago, finally assigning the tournament a monetary value and awarding teams “units” — financial compensation — for their participation.
But this is a low bar.
The NCAA could have sold the women’s tournament on its own last year, for far more than its current $65 million valuation. Instead, it agreed to a deal with ESPN that bundles women’s basketball with softball, volleyball, gymnastics, underwater basket weaving and any other championship there is.
Why? That’s an excellent question. The deal was signed before the boffo ratings for last year’s NCAA Tournament, when the women’s final outdrew the men for the first time. But interest and ratings were already ...
