women's sports

The women’s NCAA championship game drew a bigger television audience than the men’s title game for the first time, with an average of 18.9 million viewers watching undefeated South Carolina beat Iowa and superstar Caitlin Clark

Tessa Johnson scored 15 points, Kamilla Cardoso added 12 and undefeated South Carolina advanced to the Final Four of the women’s NCAA Tournament with a 70-58 win over Oregon State.

South Carolina comes into its Sweet 16 matchup with No. 4 seed Indiana in Albany on Friday four wins from becoming just the 10th team in NCAA women’s basketball history to put up a perfect season. South Carolina would join UConn (which has done it six times), Tennessee (1997-98), Baylor(2011-12) and Texas (1985-86).

Mike Switzer interviews Bob Moran, tournament director of the Credit One Charleston Open coming March 30th through April 7th to Daniel Island, SC.

Mike Switzer interviews Bob Moran, tournament director of the Credit One Charleston Open coming March 30th through April 7th to Daniel Island, SC.

South Carolina opened its preseason camp without the talented and accomplished group of players led by All-Americans Aliyah Boston and Zia Cooke. South Carolina lost seven players off last year's team, the core of a program that has reached the last three Final Fours and won it all in 2022.

Ticket prices on the secondary market are substantially higher for the women's Final Four than for the men. The women play in a much smaller venue. They also have more recognizable names in the their Final Four. Only UConn on the men's side is anything close to a traditional power. An all-session ticket for the women's Final Four was at least $475 on StubHub and $335 on Vivid Seats before fees. Men's all-sessions tickets were going for at least $65 and $66.

The NCAA has gotten mostly positive reviews for its new women's Sweet 16 format during March Madness. Hosting games it two cities instead of the traditional four set attendance records higher TV ratings. The two regionals combined to set an all-time attendance mark for the Sweet 16, following up the record mark set the first weekend. The switch in format was done for a few reasons including helping get a separate TV deal for the women's tournament. The current NCAA TV deal ends next summer. The current NCAA TV deal ends next summer. The NCAA also hopes the success leads to more cities bidding to host the regional games and eventually the Final Four.

Black female representation in the coaching and sports administrative ranks has often existed on a minute scale. That's true even in a sport like basketball, which along with track and field has the highest concentration of Black female college athletes. The number of women coaching women's sports has increased in the past decade but Black women continue to lag behind most other demographic groups. Some Black female players say having been coached by a Black woman at some point in their careers was crucial to their development.

Aliyah Boston of South Carolina and Caitlin Clark of Iowa are unanimous choices for The Associated Press preseason women's basketball All-America team. Both were selected on every ballot by the 30-member national media panel that chooses the Top 25 each week. Seniors Haley Jones of Stanford, Ashley Joens of Iowa State and Elizabeth Kitley of Virginia Tech were also selected as well as sophomore Aneesah Morrow of DePaul.