NCAA Women’s Basketball: What’s driving growth in the women’s game?

The Simultaneous Tournaments

Per usual, this year’s men’s and women’s basketball tournaments were held simultaneously, but this was the first time every women’s game was nationally televised. So for viewing audiences, this was the first set of tournaments truly held simultaneously.

While one could argue the current arrangement leads to the women’s tournament being overshadowed — negatively impacting ratings — there’s evidence to suggest the opposite might be true. Per a 2018 Nielsen report titled The Rise of Women’s Sports, interest in the women’s version of a sport tends to be greater when men’s and women’s events are held at the same time.

This rings true. Plenty of men’s fans — some of whom watched few if any regular-season women’s games — tuned in during the NCAA Tournament. Will this lead to them all increasing their consumption of the women’s game going forward? No, but it will have some impact.

The more years the women’s tournament is aired in its entirety, the more opportunities there will be for this “simultaneous power” to take effect, further growing the women’s game.

More Sports Gambling

Could the legalization of sports gambling that’s spreading across the U.S. benefit women’s basketball? Is it possible that some sports fans — in search of a bet — will throw some money on a women’s game, tune in and become more invested in the sport moving forward? Perhaps.

Over $20 million was bet on the women’s title game between Stanford and Arizona — the most ever for an NCAA women’s basketball game. While it remains unclear how much sports gambling is impacting television ratings as a whole, it seems likely to increase exposure to women’s sports.

As discussed, women’s sports — and women’s basketball in particular — seems primed for future growth. The one thing that might be able to hold it back? A lack of opportunity.