The Many Shining Disparities Between Men’s and Women’s College Basketball
On the heels of an NCAA tournament that went viral for both the right and wrong reasons, players and coaches are pushing to get the women's game the visibility it deserves.
By Emma Baccellieri, Sports Illustrated
If the men’s college basketball season technically ends with the final buzzer of the national championship, it does not spiritually end until the final chords of “One Shining Moment,” in all their schmaltzy glory. But women’s college basketball used “One Shining Moment” not to signal the ending of a season but the beginning of a movement.
When the buzzer sounded on Stanford’s championship win over Arizona on April 4, teams and players started pressing send on Twitter. Each shared a highlight video of the sort that might play in a tournament montage. Each tweet carried the same two hashtags: #OurShiningMoment and #OurFairShot.
The first was notable because it marked a new context for the old song: The women’s tournament does not end with “One Shining Moment.” While the championship broadcast does close with a highlight montage, it does not cover the whole tournament and does not have a signature soundtrack, let alone one that is marketed as a cultural touchstone unto itself. This is hardly among the most important differences between men’s and women’s college basketball. But it felt representative of a larger issue: the unwillingness to market or celebrate the women’s game.