Over the last 12 months or so, a great reawakening has been happening in the consciousness of sports fans. Some are just now discovering that female college and professional players can generate significant revenues for their schools/employers and themselves is growing. The television eyeballs for the recent WNBA championship series broke records–Game 2 alone averaged 789,000 viewers on ESPN. After 25 years, the game has arrived, both as a social media influencer and finally receiving some of the respect it has long been denied by broadcasters and marketers.

College basketball has benefited from the same ecosystem. The 2021 Women’s Final Four championship game averaged over 4 million viewers, despite much controversy surrounding the treatment of women athletes when it came to comparing facilities and access to the men.

So what will it take for college athletic departments to both accept and adjust to this new world order--that some women’s sports should be treated as substantial revenue generating sports? I have just the expert to tackle this question. David Berri is a sports economist and professor at Southern Utah University. Known by his Twitter handle @wagesofwins, David is on outspoken advocate for the underserved and underappreciated potential in women’s athletics. David is also a contributor to my new book, “Sport Finance: Where The Money Comes From And Where The Money Goes”, authoring a fantastic chapter on the comparisons between the financial growth of NBA and the WNBA.