With the end of both the men’s and women’s March Madness, and the winners of both brackets being announced, there is now an outpour of opinions when it comes to…well everything. With a number one seed, Florida, winning the men’s bracket, and a number two seed winning the women’s bracket, there is really no surprise. So why does it not feel the same this year? Also, why is women’s college basketball starting to dominate the playing field?
What some people love most about men’s March Madness is the ‘Cinderella Story’ that usually comes out of it. Some low-ranked, unknown team bursts onto the scene by defeating a household name early on in the bracket. This team is led by some no-name fifth year senior who dominates the court. One of my most memorable players is Jack Gohlke from the Oakland Golden Grizzlies. Gohlke went off against Kentucky where he scored 32 points, with ten three pointers, in an 80-76 win.
However, this year, a lot of people believe that this tournament is not giving the same feeling as previous years. While of course, college basketball will be popular no matter what, fans seem to think that the lack of upsets and the persistency of top seeds is making the tournament seem flat. Number one and two seeds sail through the bracket and eventually win the championship to no one’s surprise. Where is the fun in that?
Some fans like to blame this on the influx of Name Image and Likeness (NIL) deals and money with collegiate players. I already covered NIL deals within the college football arena which you can read here. But as I have said many times, the implications of NIL are single-handedly ruining collegiate sports as we know it. Here, it is less about drive and ambition, and more about the lack of diversity when it comes to competition. The programs with large chunks of money to spend in NIL obviously get the higher ranked players. With the amount of NIL money being poured into big public universities, these top schools get all of the players. Fans find it boring that the same programs stay at the top with little to no competition in the long run, resulting in boring games.
On top of that, there are superstar players who fans do enjoy watching in college, but they declare for the draft after their freshman year, only to get drafted and not play in their rookie season because they are “not ready”.
Now women’s basketball is taking the nation by storm. After last year’s breakout player Caitlyn Clark from the Iowa Hawkeyes busted on to the scene, both women and men of all ages have been taking a large interest in the women’s teams. In 2024, during the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship between Iowa and South Carolina, the game drew a record-breaking 18.7 million viewers, absolutely crushing the men’s championship game that same year that had only 14.8 million viewers. This was the first time ever that the women’s game had ever surpassed the men’s game in viewers.
These stats are all thanks to the class of 2020–arguably one of the biggest breakout classes to date. Some of the names in the top ten are Paige Bueckers, who just won a national championship in her fifth year at UConn, Caitlyn Clark, Angel Reese, Kamilla Cardoso, Cameron Brink and Hayley Van Lith. All of those names are some of the most popular names in the sport right now.
Personally, the reason I think women’s basketball is becoming more interesting is because they know they have something to prove. Men’s basketball will always have viewers, money and respect. It will always garner a certain amount of attention because put simply, it always has. Women’s basketball is on a new path of respect because they are finally getting recognition. Caitlyn Clark, in her career at Iowa, had a record-breaking 3,951 points, averaging 28.4 points per game, a feat that most male players do not even accomplish. Women in collegiate basketball are letting their games speak for themselves and making their talent and ambition known in the sports circuit. They play with more passion and aggression than the men in my opinion, even if their game may be less “technical” or “clean”. There are also more teams with breakout players, not just the same three programs with all the talent.
It is refreshing to see the change in collegiate sports and see how it is affecting the nation today.