GROWING THE GAME

Crystal Dangerfield (left) talks with Maria Marino (right) for a UConn broadcast on SNY

Photo courtesy: Maria Marino

​In 2017, UConn women’s basketball saw its 111-game winning streak come to an end at the NCAA Women’s Final Four. Mississippi State’s two-point jumper as the clock expired in overtime was dubbed one of the most historic upsets the sport had ever seen. A year later, UConn fell at the buzzer once again in the semifinal, this time at the hands of Notre Dame. Associated Press national college basketball writer, Doug Feinberg, credits those two shots with drawing attention back to the sport. 

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"It wasn’t women’s basketball. It was just basketball,” Feinberg said. “I’ve been fortunate enough to cover this once in a lifetime era with UConn. That transcended the game.”

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The interest in women’s college basketball has indeed been growing in recent years, combined with an increase in coverage on TV and digital platforms. According to Sports Media Watch, ratings for the women’s national championship game have shown steady growth since 2018. 

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College softball has also experienced a growing audience and expanded coverage in the last few years. In February of 2020, ESPN announced its record-breaking expansion of college softball coverage to 1,600+ games. 

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“A lot of things go into that expanded schedule,” said Kimberly Echleep, senior publicist at ESPN. “ESPN+ really opened the door to bump up a lot of numbers. Every year, we try to do more on TV if we can. That’s one of our biggest growing sports.”

About a month after ESPN’s press release detailing plans for the 2020 college softball season, the COVID-19 pandemic brought the sports world to a standstill. Spring sports were cut short and the NCAA tournaments were canceled altogether. 

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One year later, television networks and college athletic programs are striving to match and even exceed  the numbers for women’s sports they were achieving prior to 2020, while still dealing with COVID-19 obstacles.