What's the most underserved sport in terms of coverage?

If that's your response then you shouldn't be in journalism.

 

A greater number of national outlets are pouring resources into covering women's sports, and it's not uncommon now to see women's basketball games on ABC. I've seen NWSL games on CBS lately too. I don't think this would be happening if the interest wasn't there. More coverage will lead to more interest, sure, but I think the coverage is currently growing because it hasn't yet caught up to the interest.

 

Softball.

Volleyball.

Gymnastics, but I’m not sure that’s on the media. How many meets are there?

 

Of note: There was a nice boost in women’s coverage in the late 90s/early 2000s that has been lost through mass layoffs. Not that it should have been lost - less coverage of bad men’s teams, please, but it was.

 

Even competitive eating contests have been given a pedestal women's sports haven't.

 

National TV and ESPN has shown women's sports since the late '70s.

 

Wait, really? Man, my mind is blown!

 

A lot of it is regional, it seems. College wrestling is huge in B1G country, but all but dead in the west. Volleyball and water polo have good following out here, maybe not as much in the east.

Women's sports and soccer are sports that have changed a lot in my lifetime. I was in high school when Title IX came into play and nobody really knew what to do with girls sports, but now we've had a generation or two grow up in a time where girls playing sports is normal. Soccer? When I was in the business I knew enough to blow out World Cup with or without U.S. participation. When NBC got the EPL contract, I asked a younger colleague if we should be running any agate on this, until he explained how many levels there were in the sport. So stuck with MLS agate and getting into the bigger tournaments and CONACAF qualifying.

 

I respect wrestling and had a chance or two to see some bigtime prep invitational wrestling. It's hard to write about, but I also suspect it's harder to read about.

Wrestling dads were some of the more exemplary sports parents I've seen, BTW. Most probably because they knew the sport inside out, unlike other sports parents.

 

I love rugby but only watch it during the Olympics. So I don't know if it's underserved, or I just don't watch it.

 

Motorsports isn’t exactly growing, but the media cutbacks since 2000 have been so severe that I wonder if a course correction isn’t in order.