Women’s sports at the college level have always been competitive, but now, the attention is at an all-time high. Talented players, thrilling games, and growing fan interest. Despite its potential, women’s basketball has not received the recognition and opportunity it deserves. Now, Hall of Famer Dawn Staley claims that structural issues within the NCAA continue to hinder the sport.

Recently, the podcast All The Smoke featured three of the nation’s top coaches: Dawn Staley, Cori Close, and Vic Shaefer, breaking down the state of women’s basketball.  When asked about the sport’s growth, Staley said:

“I think we’ve been held down for so many years, so many decades that that now comes out of the bag. Like it is it is it is high demand. I mean, it is everybody wants it to be money-making…These leagues are starting.” But even with all this growth, she believes a key piece is still missing.

“These leagues are super competitive,” Dawn Staley added, “They’re going after each player. The WNBA is hypercompetitive. I think now is the time.” Even as Staley celebrates the surge in interest, she pointed to the elephant in the room: television coverage.

“College women’s college basketball is at an all-time high I and I still don’t think we get what we deserve from a television deal…we don’t get what we deserve. We aren’t what we were when we signed the deal. We are not where we are.” Her anger brings her directly to the broader structural problems, which she says have been overlooked for decades.

These structural problems cannot be ignored when the data is taken into account. Certainly, the NCAA has underestimated media rights to the women’s tournament, and it is a tendency that has been formed over a long period of time due to some deeply rooted assumptions that never reflected the real demand. If you see, growth is pretty much visible.

For instance, in 2024-2025, ESPN women’s college basketball got its highest regular-season viewership. With 8.6 billion minutes of total viewing, the NCAA Division I Women’s basketball tournament concluded as the second-highest in history. Some games actually competed with the best matches of males, which confirmed that the market and the viewers are there.

Dawn Staley pointed to Cori Close’s work and emphasized how much guidance and direction the sport has gained from leaders who understand its past and future. The feeling of orientation is even significant when you consider what new research has revealed.

The hidden truth behind the NCAA’s unequal treatment

In a recent report released in 2025 by Kaplan Hecker and Fink, something was alarming: the media rights alone could earn women’s college basketball an amount of $81-112 million per year. More importantly, however, there is a catch to this: broadcast contracts bundle the games of women athletes with other games and pay them significantly less. In essence, the statistics are that the game is worth more than its treatment. And it’s not just the money.

Teams in women’s sports tend to receive inferior facilities and backup compared to men’s. Consider smaller gyms, fewer supplies, and gifts of an average of 60, rather than 125. Even the tournaments themselves are established unequally, having fewer invitations to the teams and distinct Final Four settings. It is easy to see how the system was piled higher. A big reason?

Historically, the NCAA has been concerned with men’s basketball. Their sponsorships, revenue sharing, and even cultural hype were biased towards the guys, and this gave them the false perception that women’s basketball does not attract fans.

However, record-breaking crowds disprove that; female games are attracting crowds that are comparable to those of males. According to experts, it is time to repair this. They recommend distributing more income, staffing equally, and having men’s and women’s final fours at the same location.

On a progressive move, the NCAA accepted a novel system of payouts in January 2025. Teams, which comprised women, received performance-based payments just like men.

The media agreement was also enhanced, and that now amounts to around $65 million annually for the women’s tournaments. That is one giant leap forward since the past, but still way short of what the male games bring in. This is why, as much as there is improvement taking place, there is still a hole to cover before basketball will give women the respect and investment it really needs.