Two weeks ago, one of the biggest sporting events in the country kicked off. I’m not a huge college basketball fan, but I tune in for the men’s and women’s NCAA March Madness tournaments every year and get extremely invested in my poorly researched brackets. This year, however, I missed out on the 63 women’s games because I don’t have ESPN2.
Four different networks are streaming the men’s tournament this year: TruTV, CBS, TNT and TBS. The games are available on Max and Paramount+, or through live streaming services including Fubo and Sling. For someone like me, whose parents decided one day three years ago that we needed every streaming service imaginable, this was a pretty good deal. Though the games were divided between services, I was able to watch everything I wanted.
When the women’s tournament started a day later, I expected the same situation. I was wrong. When I opened Max, I didn’t see any games advertised. On Prime, I ran into the same issue. Confused, I went online and was relieved to see the first round games available on the NCAA website, but my relief was short-lived. In order to watch the women’s games, I needed ESPN2.
With my family’s multitude of streaming services, of course, we have the Disney+/Hulu/ESPN bundle. But this doesn’t include ESPN2, which costs an additional $9.99 a month on top of ESPN. Because I didn’t see myself using ESPN2 ever again, I was unable to watch any of the women’s games.
I know I said I’m not a college basketball fan, but I am a fan of women’s professional and college sports in general. I’ve played soccer my entire life, and while I’m a die-hard fan of the Major League Soccer team, the Colorado Rapids, there wasn’t a National Women’s Soccer League team in Colorado until this year. I grew up seeing women’s sports receive less recognition than men’s sports, and have seen talented female athletes dismissed or held to a much higher standard in the public eye simply because they are women.
In my extended family’s March Madness pool, my uncle only sent out a men’s bracket to enter. When I went to a bar with my friends, they were playing the pregame roster updates for a men’s game that started in 20 minutes instead of the four-point women’s Elite Eight game that was in the fourth quarter. It felt too blatant to be real, but no one besides me seemed to mind.
The opening day of the men’s tournament averaged 9.1 million viewers, whereas the women’s tournament averaged 367,000 viewers across the first round.
I’m sure Max, and every other streaming service showing the men’s tournament, thought they were making the financially smart decision. Why would they pay for the rights to the women’s games when they expect fewer people to watch? This is a reinforcing cycle that has plagued women’s sports in America. If women’s sports aren’t as readily available as men’s sports — if you have to have a niche and expensive upgrade of ESPN to watch them — then fewer people are going to watch!
I’ve heard the same arguments from my well-meaning guy friends: Women’s sports just aren’t as entertaining. This doesn’t just make me upset on a principled level. I also feel bad for these guys because they have closed themselves off to some of the most iconic moments in sports history: Brandi Chastain scoring the last penalty for the United States to defeat China in the 1999 World Cup final, Billie Jean King defeating Bobby Riggs in three sets or Sha’Carri Richardson running a 9.65 100m in the relay to win the United States a gold medal at the Paris Olympics.
It’s going to take a systemic change to sway the hearts and minds of sports fans in America. If we simply accept the stereotype that women’s sports aren’t as good or fun to watch, then youth programs will be poorly funded and there will be fewer development opportunities for female athletes. Media companies and streaming services have the power to increase viewership for professional and collegiate sports, which in turn could increase sponsorship deals and salaries for female athletes.
Before this systemic change happens, it’s up to individuals to support women’s sports, myself included. I could have emailed my uncle back and told him to add a women’s bracket and asked the bar to turn on the live game. And I guess I could have paid the $9.99 for ESPN2.
Charlotte Renner PZ ’27 is an all-around sports lover (except for hockey) and an obsessive Colorado Rapids fan who also just got season tickets to the Denver NWSL expansion team. She doesn’t follow basketball until March, when she becomes extremely competitive and invested in colleges she’s never heard of.
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