Lack of Caitlin Clark will show how far the NCAA women’s basketball tournament must go | Opinion
The ultimate revealer of exactly where NCAA women’s basketball resides is that its opening rounds are played on campus sites, which is exactly where they should be.
A case can be made that the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 should be moved back to campus sites, too.
Thanks to the success of the TCU women’s basketball team, which won the Big 12 regular season and conference tournament, the NCAA Tournament is coming to Fort Worth for first and second round games to be played at Schollmaier Arena, the weekend of March 21-24.
TCU will likely be a No. 2 seed in the 68-team field. Tip times and teams will be announced on Selection Sunday, at 7 p.m. on March 16 during an ESPN telecast.
Other than (some of) the games, often the most closely monitored development of this tournament that historically follows the chalk is the attendance, and interest. TCU will be on spring break when the tournament begins, but there is optimism the games will sellout.
It will mostly depend on what teams are picked for the site at TCU, and how those team’s respective fan bases “travel.” If these games, other than TCU, draw more than 5,000 it’s a win.
Unlike the last two years, you may have noticed the interest and enthusiasm for this season’s version of the tournament has dropped considerably. Without Caitlin Clark draining 3-pointers from the logo, or an undefeated South Carolina trying to remain perfect, there is no nationally captivating figure that commands the audience.
USC’s JuJu Watkins and UConn’s Paige Bueckers are terrific players, and neither really grabbed a following like Clark.
In fairness, no women’s basketball player has ever cultivated a gathering like Clark. a Taylor Swift-phenomena who forced sports bar owners to put every single one of their TVs on Iowa games.
As evidenced by the recent growth of the WNBA and increased visibility for the sport in general, interest in women’s basketball has never been greater; ESPN reported its most-watched season ever for its women’s basketball telecasts, averaging about 280,000.
There also remain miles and miles to go on this journey before their game is on equal ground with the men.
As much as proponents of NCAA women’s basketball want to move these opening round games to neutral arenas, like the men’s tournament, the demand isn’t there yet. The sacrifice of allowing the home team to have a tremendous advantage in the NCAA Tournament is worth it in favor of a crowd that may actually be decent.
When Stanford defeated Iowa State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament last season, the game was played on Stanford’s campus at Maples Pavilion. These are two established women’s basketball programs with tradition, and fan bases. The announced attendance for that game was 5,811; Maples Pavilion seats 7,233.
Stanford under now retired coach Tara VanDerveer was renowned for enjoying a laughable home court advantage, almost to the same level that Kansas men’s team has at Allen Field House; think “5 on 8.”
Even the losing coach had to agree that moving away from the campus sites of early round games is a bad idea.
“I think our kids would tell you they’d rather experience that (crowd) than go play in Omaha on a neutral court in front of 1,100 people,” Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly said after the loss. “The environment at Stanford was phenomenal.”
Fennelly has coached Iowa State for 30 years, and he’s been around long enough to know what’s what. He wasn’t being literal about 1,100 fans at a neutral site game, but close.
According to the NCAA record books, in 2000-’01 its Division I women’s basketball games averaged 1,524 fans per game for its 315 teams. In 2023-’24, its Division I women’s basketball games averaged 1,921 fans per game for its 349 teams.
These totals include tournament games, which have seen the biggest increase over the years. In 2001, when the women’s tournament was held entirely on campus sites with the exception of the Final Four, the average attendance for every game was 7,621. In 2024, that figure jumped to 10,257.
Starting in 2005, the NCAA has played around with neutral sites for its four regional locations with mostly meh results.
Frustrated with a lack of fans at the neutral sites for four regionals, in 2023 the NCAA went to two regional locations. The results were more encouraging, but not a guaranteed sellout the way the men have enjoyed for years.
When Baylor played USC in last year’s Sweet 16 in Portland, the lack of a sellout was evident during the telecast.
This topic has been a point of discussion, and frustration, in the women’s games for years. The late legendary Tennessee coach Pat Summitt wondered aloud if the women’s season should start earlier than the men, by a month, to create the chance for increased viewership.
Everyone involved in the sport would love nothing more than to see all of these tournament games go neutral. That’s the desired sign of growth they all crave.
“So if you could say the fans will show up, then I’m all for it,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said during the 2021 Tournament. “And I think that would be great for the game, if we could do it.”
They will, just not today.
This story was originally published March 14, 2025 at 4:00 AM.
