We should look at the little victories. At least after nearly two decades, ads on ESPN during a Women's Basketball game aren't just feminine hygiene products anymore.
Also Geno's suggestions about how to make the Women's game more exciting, like lowering the net, half court timer, reduced shot clock may improve the games popularity. Game purists hate some of the ideas but Geno does have a point. But hyping a national playoff game between two power houses to get people to tune in only to have the first half being a miss/turnover fest doesn't do the Women's game any favors in building an audience beyond fans of the teams involved.
But the real problem is still the dreaded parity. Great we've gone from 5 power house programs in the 90s to what, 10 now, out of over 300 teams. That the first interesting round of games where upsets are likely to occur are the regional finals. While the Men's teams have achieved parity partially by having their star players constantly leave for the NBA, which we don't want to start happening in the Women's game, most colleges only provide lip service to their Women's program.
Sadly college sports is now all about the TV money. Period. Big East disintegrated because teams chased the TV football money. There's the chicken and the egg problem with TV money for basketball, especially Women's teams. If you don't have a powerhouse, you can't get the money but without the money you can't create a powerhouse. UConn Women was lucky that the Men's team had a serious following, it allowed Gampel to be built and they piggybacked on that. It also doesn't hurt to hire a coach with the vision, market savvy and salesmanship of Geno.
So yes it's sad that a 4th tier bowl game prevents the #1 vs #2 Women's game from being shown nationally on a channel nearly every cable home gets but football money still trumps Women's basketball money.
