Women making case in tourney for own March Madness TV deal

Women’s basketball seems to have found a winner with its newSweet 16 format in March Madness and the timing couldn’t be betterwith looming TV contract negotiations on the horizon.

There were record-setting attendance at the two sites —Greenville, South Carolina and Seattle — along with record numbersfor TV ratings. It fueled the momentum heading into a star-packedFinal Four lineup in Dallas.

NCAA selection committee chair Lisa Peterson expects the formatsuccess to help in upcoming contract negotiations. The current NCAATV deal ends next summer.

“It has to,” she said. “I’m very much looking forward to seeingthose conversations. It only can be good for the game. People aretalking about it.”

TV ratings for games on Friday and Saturday averaged 1.2 millionviewers, a 73% increase over last year. Saturday afternoon’s OhioState and UConn matchup on ABC was the most watched women’s Sweet16 game on record with an average of 2.4 million.

Ratings were also up for the games Sunday and Monday on ESPN —up 43% gain and averaged 2.2 million. Sunday night’sIowa-Louisville contest which featured dynamic guard Caitlin Clarkled the way at 2.5 million, making it the most watched Elite Eightgame on record.

Tag Garson, Wasserman’s senior vice president of properties,said this year’s ratings will be one of many pieces that factorinto what path the NCAA will take.

“When you’re looking at how ratings are performing as you’repreparing for a negotiation you don’t just look at one year,” hesaid. “You’re looking at the historical value while projecting outthe future value.”

The NCAA is expected to decide by this fall whether to separatethe women’s tournament or keep it as part of the championships TVpackage that includes at least 24 sports.

Peterson and her group will have a lot to review.

Arenas in Greenville and Seattle were mostly full which createdan entertaining atmosphere. While attendance was expected to behigh in Greenville with the undefeated Gamecocks there. the closestteam to Seattle was Colorado — 1,300 miles away.

The distance didn’t stop fans from flocking to Seattle, withstrong support from basketball fans around the city thanks in partto the success of the WNBA’s Storm over the last two decades. Inthe end, the Seattle region outdrew its South Carolina counterpartby a few thousand. Overall 82,275 fans took in the Sweet 16 andElite Eight games, including 43,556 in Seattle.

“It really was a great atmosphere to play in. You love to playin these kind of atmospheres with this kind of crowd and play in agreat building like this,” said UConn coach Geno Auriemma whoseteam played in Seattle.

The NCAA also hopes the success leads to more cities bidding tohost the regional games and eventually the Final Four.

“The number of cities that had bid (in the past), we didn’t havethat many more options,” Peterson said. “With the success we’ve hadhopefully it opens up new doors so we don’t keep going to the samecities.”

The local organizing committee in Seattle said that theyexpected the tournament to generate more than $8.3 million to thecity.

“When we host events like this there’s no playbook to say it’s aguaranteed success,” Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell told TheAssociated Press. “You don’t know how the fans are going to comeout, but what has been proven time and time again, particularlyaround women’s sports is that they come from all over the stateeven come from Canada. ... The revenue is incredible for our taxbase.”

Harrell threw Seattle’s hat in the ring for a future women’sFinal Four, saying he would love it if his city got thatopportunity.

One of the next steps the NCAA is planning for upcoming tworegional sites is to turn them into “mini Final Fours.”

Many fans seemed to enjoy the new format going to more than justtheir team’s games. Dave Lichliter, who is from Pennsylvania, wentto games both Friday and Saturday and enjoyed the expandedfield.

“You get to see more teams,” said Lichliter, who was wearing anLSU championship football shirt from 2019. “Next year is Albany(New York) and Portland (Oregon), so we’ll see how that goes.”

So will the NCAA.

The two-city format will be in place at least another threeyears. The next bid cycle starts in July where regional hostingwill be decided from 2027-31.

“We’re doing this for three years. It’s not a permanent deal,”Peterson said. “As always we’ll evaluate it. If we feel it doesn’twork, we’ll see what we need to do to change it. Whether it’schanging formats, or if that’s adding a day, Whatever that lookslike, we’ll keep looking at it.”

There were a few logistical bumps with the two sites.

With eight schools at one venue required some adjustments byteams and arena staffs. Practice time on the court was cut from 90minutes to 60 to allow all eight time on the court. It alsorequired a little more coordination when it came to the lockerrooms with teams having to double up.

But none of it seem to bother the players. Some said it feltlike an AAU tournament from their younger days with so many teamsin the same place.

“I think it’s fun. I think it’s cool,” said Clark, before heHawkeyes guard added: “Obviously we’re not going to be coming toall the games, that’s just not really how it works, but I think Ilike the two regional sites.”

___

AP Sports Writers Tim Booth in Seattle, Pete Iacobelli inGreenville, South Carolina and Joe Reedy contributed to thisstory.