NCAA moves toward equity
Now it’s time to show women the money to close the gap with men
In a postseason to remember, the 2022 NCAA women’s basketball tournament has displayed the March Madness moniker for the first time.
The NCAA resisted slapping the logo on the women’s tournament until this year. Upsets and wild finishes on the women’s side have been perfectly on brand.
With a pair of 10-seeds Creighton and South Dakota going deep into the tournament and elite programs like Baylor, Kentucky and Iowa making early exits, parity has brought a fresh look to the Division I women’s basketball product.
And then there’s my personal favorite near-upset.
Katie Abrahamson-henderson’s University of Central Florida came close to an upset win over Uconn. The secondround matchup between UCF and Uconn was the highestrated early round game since 2009, with 1.13 million viewers, according to ESPN.
UCF’S defense had Uconn head coach Geno Auriemma looking confused and his players out of sync, but the Huskies survived 52-47. Abrahamsonhenderson, the former Ualbany head coach, was named Georgia’s next women’s basketball head coach Saturday.
UCF’S loss busted my bracket as I picked Coach Abe’s team to beat Uconn and make the Final Four. At UCF, where she has coached for six seasons, the Knights earned a school record for wins with a 26-4 mark. A head coach for 17 years, she has compiled a career record of 372-157, averaging an amazing 22 victories a season. Abrahamson-henderson’s move to Georgia is a coming home of sorts. She played there for two years in the 1980s.
The women’s tournament schedules a home-court advantage for the top seeds, which has led to packed venues this year breaking a record more than two decades old. The NCAA said the first and second rounds of the women’s tournament drew 216,890 people, above the previous record of 214,290, set in 2004.
University of South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley talked
about the home-court advantage in her podcast Net Life. “I feel like if you’ve earned the opportunity to host, you are a complete body of work and you’re a top 16 team in the country. I think a lot of coaches who’ve never hosted before are going to think it’s an unfair advantage. And I say elevate, elevate, that’s what we did,” she said in a conversation with former Gamecock and current NBA superstar A’ja Wilson.
Yahoo News reported that decibel levels hit 114 during a frantic fourth quarter in Iowa City when No. 10 seed Creighton stunned No. 2 Iowa at a sold-out Carver-hawkeye Arena. Watching the game on television, you could feel the crowd’s intensity.
Louisville’s Hailey Van Lith, who led all scorers with 20 points in the first-round win against Ualbany, is having a phenomenal season and tournament. According to the marketing/media company Opendorse, Uconn’s Paige Bueckers and Van Lith have the highest earning potential per social media post and are cashing in with
NIL deals. Bueckers’ earning potential per post — calculated by factors such as followers, engagement, school and sport — was estimated at $62,000, and Van Lith followed close behind at $44,200.
“Women’s basketball players have earned 19% of all NIL deals, which trails only men’s football, and is ahead of men’s basketball,” JWS reports.
Despite the small changes to the tournament this year to
make it more equitable, coaches are pushing the NCAA to implement a reward system for teams and conferences immediately to help women close the gap with the men.
South Carolina coach Dawn Staley has an idea the NCAA can implement immediately to help women close the gap with the men, the Associated Press reports. “The units,” Staley explained, meaning money. “Like men’s basketball, they get units, and those units equal dollar signs. I would like for us to divvy it up like the 68 teams get (their money) divvied up once the tournament ends.”
It’s madness that this isn’t already happening. Women’s basketball is paving the way for more equity across all NCAA sports. A catchy logo is just the start.