Women's College Basketball: First Among Unequals

At the schools I'm familiar with, JV plays first, like at 4 and only one game a week, so Tuesday would be JV girls, girls, and boys. On Friday it would be JV boys, girls and boys.
The reality is, at most places, that if the team is good, they'll have fans out. Whether it was the 6 p.m. game or the game at 7:30.

 

You would also see some ridiculous single-game effort where a team would score 80-some points and one girl would have all but two of the points. All you needed was one tall, semi-coordinated girl with a decent shot and you could dominate.

 

Word, brother.

The gals should have been thankful people showed up at halftime.

 

The Summit League, which has a schedule with travel partners, plays doubleheaders on Saturdays. But each team plays one game a week solo — men on Thursdays, women on Mondays.

 

Here, it's a 6-game night.
Girls' JV, girls' varsity and boys' varsity at the main site.
Boys' JV, freshmen boys and freshmen girls at the B site.
Game times: 4:30/6:00/7:45 (except that the girls' varsity game never starts at 6 because they call 65 fouls in the JV girls' game).

 

Changing or flip-flopping the start times and who plays first would not be that tough for the boys to stomach.
It's said that less than 20 percent of colleges and high schools are fully compliant with Title IX and this would be a way for them to throw the non-revenue-producing girls' programs a bone once in a while, plus appear to be more compliant.

NOTE: I'm not a big fan of Title IX but I accept that it's been mandated.

 

This stuff is really, really weak sauce.

If the women are good - and the area will support it - the crowds and revenue will follow. It's really that simple.

I've staffed a high school or two where the girls won and got the support. Not surprisingly, there were frequently more good seats available for the boys game.

 

It's lame. So is the fact that there's no 10-second backcourt violation in women's college basketball. Fucking ridiculous.

 

Shorter shot clock, too.

 

The Kentucky High School Athletic Association has a bylaw that states in varsity basketball doubleheaders, the girls must "schedule" their game to be last 50 percent of the time.

As some schools have learned, however, the girls rather have the gym be fairly full at the end of the game rather than half empty at the start at nearly empty at the end.

Thus, even when the girls' game is "scheduled" to be played second, they might switch it the day of the game.