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Women's College Basketball Update
The gap between the Super Bowl in mid-February and the start of the NBA playoffs in mid-April is a dead zone on the American Sports calendar. The only respite of any relevance is the three-weekend single-elimination tournament extravaganza that is March Madness. Interestingly, most of the hype this year has been from the women's bracket. The quarterfinal between LSU and Iowa was the most-watched women's basketball game of all time with 12.3 million viewers, which is more than last year's (men's) NBA Finals. It was a good game too.
What is going on? The WNBA is still completely irrelevant. Last year was a good year for them. They got about 700,000 viewers for the finals. The only active WNBA player I can name is Brittney Griner, and that's because she was the subject of an international incident.
As with most questions regarding women's social status, "is she hot bro?", is probably the best place to start. Here is the roster of current NCAA darlings Iowa. Here is the roster of the 2023 WNBA champion Los Vegas Aces. You'll notice I had to use a promotional Twitter post for that one. The Aces don't have photos of the players on their website. They aren't even trying.
How did this happen? What are the incentives that led to this?
The WNBA loses money. Not a massive amount of money (about 10 million dollars a year), but it isn't particularly close to being profitable. The NBA keeps the WNBA around for positive PR, and because getting little girls interested in basketball is good for the cultural relevance of the NBA. The NCAA Women's tournament exists because of Title IX. Any university that spends money on men's sports must also spend money on women's sports, lest they be sued for discrimination. Universities can't pay players directly, but recent court cases and rule changes mean that players are allowed to profit off of their "name image and likeness" ("NIL") through endorsements, sponsorships, and the like.
In men's sports, NIL has created a massive clusterfuck that is worthy of it's own post. In women's sports, results were much more banal and predictable. The hotties get all the money. There is an economic incentive to be and present oneself as attractive in order to get paid. You think Hailey Van Lith wears her hair like this because it helps her get buckets?
On the earned media side, Caitlin Clark is getting a lot of airtime on the sports networks. She is in fact putting up some impressive numbers, but I doubt she would be getting this much attention if she wasn't a cuteish white girl who isn't attractive enough to feel threatening to the middle-aged PMC women who complain about stuff.
Something to note here is the intersection between the preferred attire and aesthetic that women adopt and the financial incentives involved. Sure, Van Lith and Cameron Brink look cute in braids, but women in sports just wear braids pretty often without any incentive to do so. If they're going to have long hair (and they should, if they want to be attractive), braiding is one of the easier ways to get it out of your face, and it looks cute, and women like looking cute. You'll see tons of softball and cross-country girls in braids too and it's not like they're getting paid for it.
Agree, but I think you're underselling how entertaining of a player she is. She's literally the first women's basketball player I've ever intentionally turned games on to watch. I've gotten texts from basketball fan friends saying pretty much the same. It's like if you took Steph Curry and dropped him into a 2005 NBA game. Her opponents are just completely unprepared for the combination of range and creative passing. Her skillset is completely unlike any other women that I've watched.
The final thing that you touched on a bit but didn't quite get into is the race war aspect of it. There is absolutely a significant driving element of the wholesome Iowa girls beating a pretty villainous LSU team that also ties into racial stereotypes.
There are no lack of male sports athletes with hair that interferes with their ability to perform. How much would Troy Polamalu’s 40 time increase if he shaved himself bald? Probably a few hundredths. But it’s not a big enough factor to interfere with feeling comfortable in your look.
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