UConn routs Louisville to win NCAA (women’s) Championship

One can be forgiven for thinking that North Carolina winning the NCAA (men’s) championship on Monday is the biggest story in basketball this year. After all, even President Obama took time out of his busy schedule to have ESPN broadcast him filling out his NCAA tournament brackets, which he completed by picking North Carolina to win. Not to mention that most sports fans fill out these brackets each year with as much duty and care as some of us fill out our tax forms.

Objectively speaking, however, the biggest story in basketball this year is the way Connecticut (UConn) crowned a perfect season by winning the NCAA (women’s) championship last night in a rout over Louisville 76-54. Because UConn not only ended its season 39-0, its players were so dominant, they won each game by double digits with unprecedented ease .

Now just imagine the hoopla if North Carolina had won its championship in such convincing fashion….

But I am disappointed that, after filling out the men’s brackets, the sports-fanatic and politically savvy Obama did not take a couple minutes to have ESPN broadcast him filling out the brackets for the women’s tournament as well. Of course this assumes that women’s college basketball would have even figured in his consciousness or in that of the ESPN producers on this occasion.

Indeed, I’m willing to bet that if you were to find ten sports fans who dutifully filled out the men’s brackets, at least nine of them would concede that they did not do the same for the women’s.

Not to mention that instead of commanding network coverage in prime time, like the men’s championship, the women’s was relegated to cable last night, which guaranteed only a fraction of the viewership. Yet the TV executives responsible for dissing women’s college Basketball in this fashion are the ones who wonder why they can’t get better ratings for the fledgling women’s professional league — the WNBA.

What message does this send to female college athletes or young girls we encourage to have the same interest in sports as young boys? It says that male chauvinism, sexism, and discrimination against women in sports not only still exist but are blithely tolerated. Sorry girls…

Nevertheless, here’s to the UConn Huskies on winning their 6th NCAA title!