The surging interest in women's college basketball prompted the NCAA to double down on its investment last summer by backing the inaugural Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament. It already appears to be paying off.
FILE - James Madison guard Hevynne Bristow and Stony Brook guard Shamarla King chase down the ball during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the first round of the WBIT in Harrisonburg, Va., Thursday, March 21, 2024. The surging interest in women’s college basketball prompted the NCAA to double down on its investment last summer by backing the inaugural Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament.
Sure, getting fans to Monday afternoon games with the second game bleeding into the start of the much ballyhooed Caitlin Clark-Angel Reese rivalry never was going to be easy. But the start times created a seemingly made-for-television quadruple-header onThe women’s NCAA Tournament had center stage. The stars, and the games, delivered in a big wayFourth-seeded Illinois has now won a school record four consecutive postseason games in a single tourney.
The investment came at a time interest in women’s basketball was surging and less than four years after players and coaches complained about the clear disparities between the 2021 men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments played in bubbles during the COVID-19 pandemic. Another indication of the growing popularity of women’s basketball is that the WNIT still exists as it always has, under a separate ownership group from both the NCAA and the previous NIT organizers.
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