“We have the best league in the world. We have the best fans in the world. But we have the worst leadership in the world”. With this statement, Napheesa Collier made Cathy Engelbert one of the most-talked-about people from the WNBA world in recent days. If the alleged comments against Clark, then officiating calls, and CBA weren’t enough, the WNBA’s decision on the dates of the Finals was the final nail. Yes, yet again, the leadership has attracted eyes, making it look like they don’t think much before taking big calls.

The crew of Caroline Fenton, Ice Young, and Cassandra Negle recently hosted another episode of Yahoo! Sports’ ‘Hoops 360’ show. There, Fenton brought up the planned schedule for the later games, i.e, Game 5. Even though the 2025 WNBA tournament would end if the Las Vegas Aces win Game 4, the Phoenix Mercury can still surprise people. If that happens, it will be a separate issue to deal with, since Game 5 would fall on Sunday! The same day, when not 1, not 2, but multiple NFL games are scheduled to take place.

“Like, I don’t know if that’s a W thing… (or) if that’s an ESPN thing. I don’t know if that’s a network thing. Whatever it is, be better. Do better. To hide a potential championship game in the middle of the NFL,” said Fenton. “Look, anybody that goes against the NFL is going to lose. College football, Major League Baseball, National Hockey League, whatever it is, Dancing with the Stars. If you go up against the NFL, you will lose. And it is not fair to this league and to these teams to be buried right in the middle of an NFL window.”

According to The New York Times, NFL games are averaging 18.58 million viewers in 2025, when both TV and digital viewers are accounted for. Meanwhile, the 2025 WNBA campaign, as of mid-September, is averaging 969,000 viewers for nationally-televised games. Even a single NFL game, if it falls on the same day as a WNBA game, tends to overshadow the women’s basketball league. Therefore, a decision to hold an important game like Game 5 (if Mercury pushes it beyond Game 4) on the same day that clashes with multiple NFL games places Cathy Engelbert in a bad light.

Here are the NFL’s October 12 matchups and broadcast details according to the official NFL site.

According to reports, the WNBA lost $40 million in 2024. At this moment, the league is attempting to form an acceptable CBA agreement for the players, which provides them with a pay raise that they deem desirable. The same will be hard to implement if advertisers see a drop in numbers during the WNBA Finals and decide to pull back. Especially now, when the league finally got some good news.

WNBA had record Game 1 WNBA Finals viewership, but sentiments were, “the buzz was really low.”

The remarks from Caroline Fenton and crew came around the same time WNBA analyst Rachel A. Demita also touched base on the WNBA Finals. While she didn’t talk about the Game 5 schedule, she did point out that the league left quite an impression from the beginning of the Finals.

After all, according to reports, Game 1 between the Aces and Mercury clocked the league’s best opening viewership for the championship series since its inaugural 1997 season. It drew 1.9 million average viewers on ESPN, a number that is up 62% from last year. Additionally, the game peaked at 2.5 million viewers. Such numbers weren’t seen since the 1997 championship, aka a single-game format, that drew 2.8 million viewers on NBC.

“Up until last night, I felt like the buzz was really low on the finals. There were so many people who just weren’t talking about they were talking about baseball or they were talking about the NBA preseason or whatever, but it really wasn’t focused on the finals,” said DeMita. “So, when you see numbers like that, obviously those are those are great numbers, the best in 28 years.”

This isn’t the first time that a WNBA postseason series has clashed with another sport. The 2023 Finals opened on an NFL Sunday. Despite that, the Aces’ 99-82 victory over the Liberty was the most-viewed Game 1 then since ESPN started broadcasting the series in 1998.

Meanwhile, Game 2 on Wednesday night was played with the MLB postseason in full swing. ESPN NBA analyst Doris Burke even once said that “I think whatever timeframe you’re operating in, there’s going to be competition. It’s about continuing to try to grow your product. I don’t think there’s any doubt you can see the evolution of the players and the coaching in the WNBA. And I expect that trajectory to continue.”

Well, there is competition, and then there are multiple teams of one of the most popular sports in the US, clashing in a single day. It’s too late to switch the game schedule now. Therefore, if the finals series goes to a Game 5, let’s hope, for Cathy Engelbert’s sake, it doesn’t prove to be a disaster.