Since the first report from the external gender equity review of NCAA championships was released, UCLA women's basketball head coach Cori Close said the focus on moving forward has been twofold.
"What's in the best interest of these student-athletes and for the good of our game?'" Close, also the president of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association, said on a recent Social Series episode.
Some of the immediate results of that focus will be on full display this week as the Division I Women's Basketball Championship tips off Wednesday. Notable changes to the tournament include the following:
- The women's bracket expanded to 68 teams and added First Four games, which will be played at host sites this year and a predetermined site in the future.
- March Madness branding and marketing will be used for the women's tournament for the first time.
- Gifts given to student-athletes in each round of the women's tournament will be the exact same as those of the men's tournament.
- All women's Final Four teams will have their own players lounge at each hotel. The women also will have access to a family lounge at their hotels.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience," Close said. "I've been coaching for 29 years, and that process of watching their faces and their experiences through the journey, it never gets old. It is such a treasure, something they'll remember forever. This is the right next step in this arena."
While these changes and the external review were triggered by issues that surfaced at last year's women's tournament, Duke Vice President and Director of Athletics Nina King said it led to "the increased opportunity to create change in a really big fashion on a national stage."
In recent years, women's basketball has dramatically increased its national presence.
While intended to first occur during the 2020 tournament that was canceled, last year was the first to have all NCAA tournament games broadcast from start to finish on one of ESPN's linear networks. This year saw the first regular-season women's basketball game air on ABC. Conference networks have also been vital in providing stand-alone coverage for women's basketball, which has included games, studio analysis and feature content on student-athletes.
"I'm in the ACC, and I know on Thursday night I can turn on the TV and watch ACC women's basketball. And Sunday is such a great day for women's basketball around the country, and you can turn on the TV and find great games," King said. "Television partners really do understand the value of this game and putting it on TV and dedicating time slots and days to women's basketball. The conference networks have been really invaluable to helping us grow this."
Close added: "I think those conference networks are really important in developing that kind of deeper content so that the fanbase can really get to know who these young women are off the court as well as on the court."
Women's basketball has also delivered skyrocketing viewership numbers.
Last year's national championship game between Stanford and Arizona drew more than 4 million viewers, the most watched title game since 2014, according to Nielsen Media Research. Per ESPN, the Feb. 20 Tennessee and South Carolina game on ABC brought in 876,000 viewers, the most watched regular-season women's basketball game since 2017. The Big Ten Conference announced that the 2021-22 women's basketball season on the Big Ten Network was its most-watched ever, including 41% growth from the previous top mark in 2019-20, four of the top five most-watched women's basketball games in network history and the highest viewership numbers for its conference tournament ever.
Last Sunday's NCAA Women's Selection Special averaged more than 1.1 million viewers, up 160% from 2021 and the most-viewed women's selection show since 2005.
"The viewership numbers just keep growing," Close said.
Growth, Close added, is what key committees and stakeholders will continue focusing on when considering ideas on enhancing the women's tournament in the years to come. Other areas that will be considered among the NCAA's broader gender equity efforts are marketing the TV rights for the Division I Women's Basketball Championship as a standalone property and creating a revenue distribution model for the women's tournament similar to that of the men's.
While the Division I Men's and Women's Basketball Committees jointly decided to continue conducting separate Final Fours in the near term — King said the "door's not shut" on the idea in the future — the groups will explore and discuss format and scheduling changes that help enhance each tournament.
"There's still work to be done, but the guiding force of the decision for (separate Final Fours) was, 'What is best for our game? How do we continue to grow? What puts us in a better position to continue to be the No. 1 women's sporting event in the world? And what continues to have it trickle down to the earlier rounds, as well?'" Close said. "All those things were coming into play, but the growth of our game was our guiding force because so many people worked so hard to bring equity to the foundational model."
