Scant coverage of NCAA women’s games ‘all about the dollars’

Onika Nicole Craven

-Photo by Charles Hallman

Crystal Flint

– MSR file photo

My March Madness reached an all-time vertical high this year.

Every NCAA men’s tournament game was broadcast live on one of four networks — 26 games on CBS, 16 on TNT, 13 on truTV and 12 on TNT — while the women’s games mainly were either on ESPN or ESPN2.

While the men’s tourney viewers got a smorgasbord of games to choose from and, unlike years past, were not subjected to sudden switches from one contest to another, women’s tourney fans instead got whiplash from ESPN’s “wraparound coverage” this year.

To quote President Obama, “It’s an outrage.” More importantly, it’s not just a local curmudgeonly reporter who’s outraged about women’s basketball’s annual pimp-slap each March, but also some local fans who last week expressed themselves like Smokey Robinson — they second my emotion.

“As I search for times, games, and even channels, it’s easier to look for a needle in the haystack than an actual [women’s tournament] game,” says Onika Nicole Craven. “[ESPN] analyze and over-analyze the men’s tournament… The women’s tournament — it’s like an afterthought.”

For example: Instead of serious analysis, ESPN ran a “2011 Coaches Fashion Bracket” on the women’s teams head coaches’ game-day apparel after a telecast rather than serious analysis or forecast.

That never would be seen on the men’s four channels. Oh, did I forget to mention that a fifth channel, CBS College Sports, gave wall-to-wall analysis and highlights of the men’s action along with dedicated times for such on the other four as well?

Meanwhile ESPN, which has at least five channels at its disposal, couldn’t even give decent score updates on its one or two channels for the women. Instead, the four-letter cable sports behemoth offered its Full Court pay-per-view package — women’s hoops fans who wanted to watch more games needed to pay an additional fee.

“I found it disturbing and frustrating not to be able to follow my favorite teams,” a said longtime women’s hoops fan from Minneapolis (name withheld by request).

Said Michael Contreras, “The level of ball is great, but the ‘powers that be’ seem to think less.”
“It is very sad that…women’s basketball cannot find that golden carrot (the advertising dollar) that would carry the interest of the game into the mainstream household,” added Tony Geer.
Again, Sports Illustrated devotes at least one-fourth of its March Madness issue (23 pages plus two bracket pullouts this year) to the men, while the women barely get squat (four of the five pages this time offered a feature on two siblings, Stanford’s Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike, leaving one page for the rest of the 64-team field).

The local daily newspapers aren’t any better, noted former Gopher basketball player Crystal Flint: “When looking at photos in the Star Trib and Pioneer Press…the [women players’] photos [show them making] turnovers or being fouled.” In contrast, the men’s photos are action-packed.

“I think we are continuing to fight for our fair share of the media, and I think we’re continuing to put out a great product,” said NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee Chair Marilyn McNeil recently when I asked about women’s basketball’s yearly slighted status.

“It takes people like yourself who care about it and write about it. It just takes more people asking and more people writing about it. I think the state of women’s basketball is good, and it’s getting better,” said McNeil.

Sadly, the knuckleheads at ESPN see the state of women’s hoops as an outcast, and the other media outlets, which are paying the NCAA almost $11 billion for the next 14 years, see the men’s tourney as pure gold.

“If we want to see more of women’s basketball, we need a large number of people communicating that to ESPN or to other networks. They have to find value in the product — it’s all about the dollars,” suggested Minnesota Lynx Coach Cheryl Reeve.

“I give ESPN a heck of a lot of credit” for covering women’s hoops, she added.

“We have a great partner in ESPN,” boasted McNeil.

Women’s basketball deserves as much coverage as the men.

“I understand that women’s ball is not as appealing, but they should get the same respect,” said Kim Bell. “Women put in the same work as the men for the [same] end result — a championship! It’s sad.”

First impression…
I finally met new Gopher Head Football Coach Jerry Kill last week. When asked how he will reach out to the area’s Black community, which for the most part doesn’t support U of M football, he said, “I’ve met a lot of [Gopher football] lettermen who are African American, and a lot of people in the community. I think it is important to reach out to all people. I got to rally as many people as I can get to support our program.”

Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.