Women’s college basketball has become a cultural phenomenon. Arenas are selling out. Records have been set for Division I all-time college points, three-pointers and TV viewership. Women’s Final Four tickets have been reselling for double the men’s tickets.
The top players are now household names — Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, Louisiana State University’s Angel Reese, the University of Connecticut’s Paige Bueckers, the University of Southern California’s JuJu Watkins, the University of South Carolina’s Kamilla Cardoso, to name a few.
But the images of young girls and boys — begging for autographs, crying when they meet players — have been the most evocative. (Yes, even more so than the tiara Ms. Reese brought to her final game.) For decades, women’s professional sports have been a cultural afterthought, with vast differences in pay and player treatment, relative to men’s teams, justified by middling interest (though passionate) among the public. That could change.
This moment feels akin to that of the 1990s Chicago Bulls with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, or when soccer star Brandi Chastain won the World Cup for Team USA and ripped off her shirt.
And it has been a long time coming. Many of the coaches of Elite 8 teams had to beg friends to attend their games, which they played in rotting facilities that men’s teams had long abandoned. Title IX, a 1972 federal law, mandated more equality between men’s and women’s college sports. The early 2000s saw players — such as Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird — who generated many TV viewers in college with their faster game and then went on to elevate the WNBA’s stature. Now, women’s basketball is reaching new heights.
There’s already buzz about next year’s college season, with the return of players such as Ms. Watkins and LSU’s Flau’jae Johnson. Meanwhile, the WNBA is about to welcome the once-in-a-generation talents of Ms. Clark and Ms. Reese, who could start selling out professional stadiums next year, too.
(1) comment
sports should not be segregated. separate is never equal.
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