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Earlier this week, I was flipping through the channels looking for the Caitlin Clark game, and I was pleasantly surprised to come across—on national television—a collegiate men’s basketball match-up, which I think is really cool and progressive.
I think it’s wonderful to see more boys and young men playing basketball. This is a universal sport. Basketball should be for everyone, even boy’s and men’s teams.
And before you say anything, yes, I already know that the most expensive tickets this month are for women’s games and that the top women’s games are predictably getting better ratings than the top men’s games and that women’s college basketball is the focal point of the nation’s attention.
Look, I get it. Women’s basketball is just more exciting. We all know that. It’s obvious to everyone. I’m not arguing otherwise or trying to put a “diversity, equity, and inclusion” damper on anyone’s fun.
And sure, I will concede there are probably things that could be done to make men’s college basketball more exciting. I mean, nothing immediately comes to mind, but I’m sure if we all put our heads together, we can collectively figure out how to make people like men’s basketball.
Actually, you know what? Men’s college basketball should lower the hoops. That’s a great idea. If the hoops are lowered for the male games, their version of the sport will be a bit more fun for fans. More dunking. More posterizing. More glam.
(At least in theory. I’m actually not sure if males can dunk. I only saw the one game on television for a minute or so and changed the channel.)
And I don’t suggest that to be insulting to male athletes. Quite the opposite. I think they care just as much about the sport as women.
Well… okay, maybe that’s a little misleading. It’s not that males don’t care as much about basketball but that women athletes simply show more desire for greatness. For boys, this is more of a fun hobby kinda thing. For women, it’s a profession. For women, it’s a calling.
And this doesn’t mean anything else needs to change. It completely makes sense that if women are attracting higher broadcast ratings and ticket prices from fans, then colleges and universities are right to pour more funding into women’s teams. It’s a wise business decision.
It’s only sensible that women’s college teams have access to incredible training facilities and dedicated support staff and the highest paid coaches in the game, and it doesn’t add up to pay for resources that the male teams don’t really need given that their level of competition doesn’t require as much dedication.
Women’s teams are the making the money, and it’s smart to invest in them. Simple as that.
I mean, it’s great to have male teams, but let’s be honest: is male college basketball ever gonna be as fun to watch as what the women are doing? Is male college basketball ever gonna be as lucrative?
Gosh, for that to happen, more women in the sports world would have to make an effort to watch male basketball games and write about them and dedicate more time on sports networks to analysis and debate over them and be intentional in the longterm process of building a pipeline of greatness by encouraging little boys to pick up a basketball early on and invest in boy’s teams and speak up against any women who are skeptical that boys can play, too.
That might be asking a lot.
Regardless, I think we can all agree that both these tournaments have been fun to watch.
Both March Madness and Men’s March Madness have been great.
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