How viral videos sparked a women’s NCAA tournament revolution

PHOENIX — This year’s women’s Final Four has everything. Influencer houses, swag bags, a Super Bowl-esque media day and an outside tournament village.

That might not have ever happened if not for the inequities that blew up in the tournament five years ago.

One of the flash points in women’s college basketball history unfolded during the 2021 NCAA tournament, when all teams were quarantined in the same bubble in San Antonio for all rounds during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Stanford, which ended up winning the national championship, spent most of the year practicing in Arizona because of California laws preventing indoor gatherings.

All the chaos culminated on social media, when former Oregon player Sedona Prince posted a video on TikTok showing a tiny rack of weights that looked nothing like the expansive weightlifting room set up for players in the men’s bubble in Indianapolis.

UCLA guard Charlisse Leger-Walker warms up with teammates during practice on Thursday prior to the women’s Final Four in Phoenix.

(Ross D. Franklin / Associated Press)

The inequity sparked a firestorm on social media.

“I couldn’t be prouder,” UCLA coach Cori Close said. “I was in the bubble when it got exposed, some of the differences. Now March Madness for the women is just normal now. Everything that’s in our locker room today when we walked in the arena or when we got to the hotel is the same as what the men were.”

Some players have watched the changes unfold during their college careers.

“It was such a vast moment,” said UCLA forward Angela Dugalic, who played on the same Oregon team as Prince. “But it was a little insulting at the time, and I’m grateful we have grown so much since then.”

Women’s college basketball has exploded since, with skyrocketing ratings and attendance since, partially because of the interest in former Iowa star Caitlin Clark, but the tournament’s ratings have held steady in the two years since she moved to the WNBA.

Several players in this year’s tournament competed in the 2021 bubble, including as Texas Christians’ Marta Suarez, Maddie Scherr, Taylor Bigby and Olivia Miles; Texas’ Rori Harmon; and Iowa’s Kylie Feuerbach.

“We’re super grateful to get all the swag and to go to the Tourney Town, stuff they give us in the locker room,” Harmon said. “We’re super grateful. I’ve noticed a change just in the stuff they give us. They give more.”

UConn coach Geno Auriemma said on Thursday that he thought the NCAA’s switch to the two-regional format was more of an inequality issue than anything provided during the 2020 tournament.

Auriemma argues that putting two women’s regionals at one venue, which differs from the men who play four regionals at four different venues, leads to scheduling problems and sleep deprivation for players required to meet media obligations, practice and play at less optimal times because so many teams have games and practice court access needs.

“Everybody made such a big deal out of it,” he said. “This is my 25th Final Four. Not once has any of my players said, ‘Hey, Coach, can I go lift weights?’ It was the biggest embarrassment of all time that caused the uproar that it did. Then the NCAA scrambling around going, ‘We have to be equal to the men.’ There are things like the regionals that are important.”

There have been many examples of inequity between the men’s and women’s tournaments. Until 2022, the women’s tournament could not use the March Madness branding.

The outrage lingered long after the tournament. The NCAA hired an independent firm to conduct a gender equity assessment of its entire championship staff.

Name, image and likeness revenue, now available in any NCAA sport, has also changed the equation. With revenue sharing joining the fray, some teams have been able to recruit top transfers with various perks that were once impossible to imagine be available for women’s basketball players.

A towel with the women’s Final Four tournament logo sits on a chair prior to the start of Final Four games at Mortgage Matchup Center on Friday in Phoenix.

(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)

“So the game’s in a really, really good place,” Auriemma said. “People are watching. Tremendous interest. It’s our job now to put a really good product on the court.”

The power of Title IX, which requires equity in educational opportunity for men and women and affects college sports deeply, has been on contested ground during the past few years as NIL has thrived.

While a lot changed after 2021, Close said women’s college sports might need another reckoning soon because new revenue sharing rules are poised to create another major gap in resources allocated to men’s and women’s programs that aren’t getting addressed by Title IX protection.

“When you’re talking about Title IX on campuses, you’re mostly talking about sexual harassment cases,” she said. “You’re not talking about gender equity and opportunity.”

Women’s college basketball hasn’t just gone mainstream, it’s boomed into a sport with one of the highest audience ceilings of any in the NCAA. If the 2021 viral moment didn’t happen, it might not have grown at the same pace.

The final players who competed in the bubble will exhaust their eligibility after this Final Four, leaving behind a far different tournament experience for all players who follow them.

“I can’t believe we lived through that,” Dugalic said. “It’s hard to remember all of it and then it comes back. Yeah, that was wild.”