The climactic moment of this year's NCAA women's basketball tournament may go down in history as the moment that changed the sport forever.
That's how at least some prominent observers see it now, 45 years after 1979 saw the men's game changed forever with another Final Four.
Think about the similarities.
Back then it was Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. Their rising superstardom captivated the nation with his NCAA Tournament, broke television ratings records, and set the stage for the explosive growth of the men's game that would later save the NBA.
This year it's Caitlin Clark from Iowa. She also helped set a new viewership record for a women's game and could likewise bring new life to this year's WNBA after this weekend's Final Four in Cleveland.
Follow the madness: NCAA basketball brackets, scores, schedules, teams, and more.
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert noticed that.
“This is our Magic Bird moment,” she told USA TODAY Sports Wednesday.
Former CBS Sports president Neil Pilson attended that game in 1979 and feels the same way.
“Larry Bird and Magic, can we recreate that?” Pilson told USA TODAY Sports. “I'm not worried at all about this kind of attention not continuing in a positive way… All of this feeds itself. It grows. It doesn't just disappear.”
Caitlin Clark and the reveal
It's not a perfect comparison. The Magic vs. Bird evolved into a two-star college race that culminated in the championship game. This year, Clark and Iowa defeated defending champion LSU and rival star Angel Reese in the Elite Eight, drawing the largest television audience in women's college basketball history (12.3 million). Four days later, Clark will play in the Final Four Friday against Connecticut and guard Paige Bueckers, whom her coach described as “the best player in America.”
But the appeal of high wattage is stimulating viewers, advertisers, and even gamblers alike, and has helped popularity become “self-sufficient” by increasing the tide of exposure for all boats that benefit from it. I am.
In 1979, Magic vs. Bird set a record with 35 million viewers. Now, evidence suggests a similar national awakening is occurring in women's basketball.
“I've been using the analogy of big media deals and big marketing, like Michael Jordan and the ultimate marketer, Nike, that this is our moment of change,” Engelbart said. he said.
But the women's college game has had its share of spectators and stars, including Cheryl Miller and Sheryl Swoopes in the 1980s and '90s. In an era with far fewer media channels and no social media, their tournament games drew 12 million viewers, up from 7 million on CBS. Significant growth did not continue.
“The question for me is, 'How sustainable is this?'” says Purdue University professor Cheryl Cookie, co-author of a study on media coverage of women's sports. “Is this another peak followed by a trough? Or is this really a kind of upward trajectory where we see an increase over time?”
It might be different this time
for example:
◾ Two of the top four most-watched women's college basketball games of all time featured Clark vs. Reese. Last year's finals (which averaged about 10 million viewers) and Monday's Elite Eight (12.3 million).
◾ 40 new advertisers are buying time on ABC or ESPN for this weekend's Women's Final Four. The Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC and ESPN, confirmed to USA TODAY Sports that inventory of these games is selling out faster than ever before. Disney also acknowledged that revenue from these sales has more than doubled from last year and more than tripled over the past three years.
◾ GroupM, the prominent media investment group, last week announced a commitment to double its annual investment in women's sports advertising. We will be working with clients such as Adidas, Ally, Coinbase, Discover, Google, Mars, Nationwide, Unilever, and Universal Pictures.
The company cited peak viewership and said it would work with media partners to help “discover, promote and monetize women's sports.”
◾ Gambling, which helps boost viewership for sports, is rapidly increasing in women's basketball and was not even legal in most parts of the country until after May 2018. The number of women's college basketball bets has increased 14 times since last year as of March. According to DraftKings. Monday's LSU vs. Iowa game was the most bet women's college basketball game in DraftKings Sportsbook history, and is on par with many NFL games from last season in terms of wager size. was.
“If you treat us like a sport, we'll recoup that investment,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. South Carolina's undefeated team will play North Carolina State in the national semifinals on Friday. “Women's basketball is in high demand. People want to see it. People want to see it live and they want to see it over the air.”
“50 Years of Progress”
In other words, exposure and investment in women's college basketball is reaching its peak after decades of underinvestment, neglect and occasional mediocre starts.
In comparison, the men's game has enjoyed decades of longer exposure and investment. And it wasn't until 1972 that Title IX banned sex discrimination in schools.
The first men's NCAA Tournament was held in 1939. For women, she competed for championships in 1982 in what was previously the now-defunct Women's Intercollegiate Track and Field Association. By 1954, the men's first national championship game was shown on national television, compared to his 1982 for the women.
“Remember, we just celebrated our 50th anniversaryth It’s the anniversary of Title IX,” said Bernadette McGlade, former Georgia Tech coach and current commissioner of the Atlantic 10 Conference. “This work has been 50 years in the making. It didn't just happen overnight.”
It may still seem that way sometimes. In 2019, less than 6% of broadcast time on sports news programs and ESPN's SportsCenter was devoted to women's sports, according to a study by the University of Southern California-Purdue. In 2021, a report commissioned by the NCAA found that college sports' governing bodies “prioritize men's basketball” and “significantly undervalue women's basketball as an asset.”
The NCAA didn't even use the trendy marketing term “March Madness” to promote the women's game until 2022.
So what's changing?
First, it helps to avoid over-promoting half your potential market by gender.
“Those superstars didn't get the promotion they had today,” Pilson told USA TODAY Sports. “They and the industry have learned a lot from the NBA and NFL (which have been around longer). They learned that the public responds to athletes. I learned that I am a falling star.”
Also, with the rise of social media and online streaming services, women's Basketball is now reaching more people.
Sports editors and TV executives at the time had limited space and time for reporting, and were forced to make choices. And they will try to justify the disparity in coverage between men's and women's basketball by citing attendance numbers. For example, Division I men's games in 1994 averaged about 5,500 spectators, compared to about 1,100 for women, according to NCAA records.
However, the opposite may also be true. The match was not advertised like the men's match, which meant spectator attendance was delayed. Similarly, players from the great Tennessee and UW teams of the 1990s and early 2000s could have been more nationally active if TikTok, Instagram, and other social media existed back then and connected them to more fans. It may have attracted a lot of attention.
Endorsement agreements can also be helpful. It wasn't allowed for college players until 2021, but it's helped put the spotlight on some star players, such as Clark, who now has Nike and State Farm insurance.
But will it last?
This is where the Magic-Bird comparison reaches a critical moment. Will the women's college game maintain this much interest after Clark?
The men's game exploded in popularity after the Magic and Birds in the 1980s, especially after CBS acquired the television rights to the men's tournament in 1982. Other stars and storylines rose to prominence and helped propel the men's postseason into the commercial juggernaut it is today. .
As Clark continues his path to the WNBA, Bueckers and others are left with players who can carry him forward, including Southern California, who scored 27.1 points per game, second in the nation behind Clark this season. Including freshman JuJu Watkins.
Supporters of the women's game say the NCAA is making more investments, but more needs to be done.
Over the past three years, the NCAA has increased its investment in just some of women's basketball's major championship areas by more than $14 million annually, said Lynn Holtzman, the NCAA's vice president for women's basketball.
The Final Four begins Friday with South Carolina (36-0) vs. North Carolina State (31-6) in prime time on ESPN. Iowa State (33-4) vs. UW (33-5) follows.
“This is an event and a place that people want to go to because we're seeing historic performances by these individuals and teams,” Holtzman said. “That's why it's amazing. It's amazing.”
Contributor: Steve Berkowitz
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenbohr. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com
