College WBB Goes Beyond Caitlin

Women’s Sports Continue to Dominate the News Cycle

March 13, 2025

Life After Caitlin: Women’s Hoops Viewership Staying Historically Strong
SBJ’s Austin Karp reports: “ESPN networks are seeing the best season of women’s college hoops since 2008-09, averaging 280,000 viewers across ESPN, ABC, ESPN2 and ESPNU (87 games). That’s up 3% from last year and 41% from two seasons ago (ESPN did not air many Caitlin Clark regular season games last season). ESPN on its own averaged 511,000 viewers for games, with the anchor cable network up 13%.

“There were 15 games across those ESPN networks averaging over 500,000 viewers, the most in a single season. Three games were over 1 million, led by UConn-South Carolina (1.8 million) and LSU-Texas (1.7 million) on Feb. 16 on ABC. Those two games were the company’s best women’s college hoops regular-season games since 2010.”
^{Sports Business Journal}

UConn-Iowa, Tennessee-Louisville Doubleheader Slated for Women’s Champions Classic in December
The Athletic’s Scott Dochterman reports: “Fox Sports, in conjunction with Horizon Sports & Experiences, will air ‘The Shark Beauty Women’s Champions Classic’ on Dec. 20, which is two weeks later than last year’s classic. This year, Iowa meets UConn in a 2024 Final Four rematch, while Tennessee faces Louisville. The event also is renewed for 2026.

“The inaugural classic featured Iowa-Tennessee and Louisville-UConn, and the teams received $100,000 to participate, according to an open-records request. Despite competing against the SEC, Big Ten and ACC championship football games on other networks, the event peaked at 800,000 viewers on Fox and with more than 11,000 fans in attendance.”
^{The Athletic}

Eminem Joins Detroit’s WNBA Expansion Bid Group
Sportico’s Scott Soshnick and Eben Novy-Williams report: “Rapper Eminem is part of the effort to bring a WNBA expansion team to Detroit, according to someone familiar with the process, joining a bid group that includes some of the city’s most prominent sports owners, executives and athletes.

“The Detroit native is part of a group that has been led by Tom Gores and the Detroit Pistons, said the person, who was granted anonymity because the details are private. Others in the group include owners of the Red Wings, Tigers and Lions, marking a city-wide effort to bring a women’s basketball team back to Michigan’s largest city.”
^{Wall Street Journal via Sports Business Journal}

CBS Sports at Stake As Paramount Acquisition Gets Contentious
FOS’ Eric Fisher writes, “There is new drama in the proposed $8 billion Skydance-Paramount merger as Skydance seeks to thwart a rival, late-arriving bid for the CBS Sports parent. 

“Skydance—which has attempted to acquire the CBS Sports parent since last summer and said two weeks ago that it intends to close the deal by late June—told the Federal Communications Commission that a new, $13.8 billion bid for Paramount from a consortium called Project Rise Partners is ‘a transparent attempt to delay the commission’s approval of’ the Skydance deal.”
^{Front Office Sports}

Fitch: MLB’s Outlook Expected to Remain Stable Despite ESPN Opt-Out
In a Wednesday note, Fitch Ratings said MLB’s Rating Outlook is “expected to remain stable in the near term” despite the potential financial implications of ESPN’s decision to opt-out of its media rights deal with the league following the 2025 season.

Fitch gave an “A” rating to MLB’s $1.8B outstanding senior secured notes and $1.6B in commitments under its revolving credit facility. It also gave an “A-”rating to MLB Facility Fund LLC’s approximately $517M of senior secured notes and its revolving credit facility.
^{Sports Business Journal}

NFL Players Score a Shot at Hollywood Through Hands-On Training Sessions With Filmmaker Deon Taylor
“You can’t let your entire identity be football,” said Ukwu, an aspiring actor, who was one of 20-plus former and active NFL players selected to join film training sessions at the NFL Career Tour hosted by Hidden Empire and Skydance Sports. During the three-day sessions, athletes explored the nuances of filmmaking — learning behind-the-camera roles like directing, producing and other essential elements of bringing a project to life — while also sharpening their skills as actors.
^{AP News}

African Soccer Leader Patrice Motsepe Re-Elected Pledging to Seek Private Finance for New Stadiums
“I was in Rwanda recently for a new stadium, and I was in Kenya, in Uganda, in Tanzania,” Motsepe said at a post-election news conference in Cairo. “New stadiums are being built because governments are beginning to recognize that football is an important part of the development and growth of a country.”

Motsepe, a South African billionaire with mining interests, also renews his $300,000-a-year position as a vice president at FIFA, whose president Gianni Infantino sat with Motsepe on stage Wednesday.
^{AP News}

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March Madness Selection Panel Will Have to Juggle Thanks to SEC Overload in Bracket
“The Committee has been meeting numerous times per week for the past several months, dedicating countless hours to discussing the settlement’s implementation and working diligently to ensure its short and long-term success,” Wednesday’s release read.

SBJ’s Ben Portnoy reports: “The group is composed of two ADs from each of the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, SEC and Pac-12 (the named defendants in the cases addressed by the House settlement), along with the legal and compliance teams from the conferences and NCAA. Those administrators involved include ADs Trev Alberts (Texas A&M), Ross Bjork (Ohio State), Pat Chun (Washington), J Batt (Georgia Tech), Mitch Barnhart (Kentucky) and Anne McCoy (Washington State), among others.”
^{Sports Business Journal}

Explaining the House Settlement Oversight Group
“The Committee has been meeting numerous times per week for the past several months, dedicating countless hours to discussing the settlement’s implementation and working diligently to ensure its short and long-term success,” Wednesday’s release read.

SBJ’s Ben Portnoy reports: “The group is composed of two ADs from each of the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, SEC and Pac-12 (the named defendants in the cases addressed by the House settlement), along with the legal and compliance teams from the conferences and NCAA. Those administrators involved include ADs Trev Alberts (Texas A&M), Ross Bjork (Ohio State), Pat Chun (Washington), J Batt (Georgia Tech), Mitch Barnhart (Kentucky) and Anne McCoy (Washington State), among others.”
^{Sports Business Journal}

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