NCAA’s Lynn Holzman weighs in on the growth of women’s basketball and the Final Four

Women’s basketball is still experiencing a major moment.

The sport has reached new viewership heights, thanks in part to superstars Caitlin Clark (Iowa) and Angel Reese (LSU). South Carolina and head coach Dawn Staley have also become mainstays at the top of the game amid its continued explosive growth.

The increased interest has had a myriad of effects on the game, and the NCAA aims to capitalize on it.

Lynn Holzman, NCAA vice president of women’s basketball, spoke with Sports Business Journal about a handful of topics around the sport as it looks to continue its momentum as a new season begins in the post-Clark/Reese era (answers have been edited for clarity and length):

How would you describe the growth of women’s football in recent years?

Holzmann: Over the last few years in particular, we’ve seen tremendous growth in women’s basketball (and) women’s sports in general. … There are key indicators that you see, those indicators that we were already starting to see growth before the pandemic. Since then, there have been a few inflection points that I think, through investment in additional resources, public awareness, great players and coaches, and performances, have brought many more people to our game who have stayed – whether they were present or observing.

The title game between South Carolina and Iowa obviously made a lot of noise on ABC. How does this national distribution help grow the audience and add value to the product?

Holzmann: The difference between all of that being linear (and) through a subscription with ESPN… in and of itself, provides greater viewership opportunities and such. Now, as far as all of that goes, what we’ve seen over the last few years, ESPN, as the broadcast partner of the championship, was really investing throughout the regular season, to promote the championship.

The good thing is, with the new (ESPN media deal), that championship game on ABC is a guarantee. I think this is a very important feature, along with further coverage and continued elevation. But this demonstrates that ESPN is investing more and, as a result, the bar has been raised, and now this is the new starting point, as they continue to deliver even more.

You mention the new media deal for women’s basketball, baseball and a handful of other Olympic sports, worth $115 million a year, about 50 percent of which comes from women’s basketball. What has this meant so far for women’s basketball in particular?

Holzmann: Specifically for the Division I women’s basketball championship, ABC coverage, introductory broadcasts surrounding the tournament, on-site sets will continue. … As has been reported, in this agreement, ESPN is devoting additional hours to storytelling about our student-athletes, and those hours, a portion of them are dedicated to women’s basketball. This all helps.

The NCAA is able to begin providing units (revenue distribution) to women’s basketball. What kind of change is this for the sport, and what does it do to continue to grow the game?

Holzmann: The program itself, the infrastructure, is like the men’s basketball program, where there is equal funding for the conference. The 31 multi-sport conferences that have the (automatic qualifiers) are going to benefit from that, and then the unitary program is the performance in the tournament itself.

This is very important to the women’s basketball community, as well as conferences and others; really see a revenue distribution program dedicated to women’s sport. This is an important moment for the NCAA.

Have you seen similar audience and attendance trends applied to sponsorship?

Holzmann: With the NCAA Champions and Corporate Sponsors Program, they support all of our 90 championships. What we’ve seen over the last few years, again, it’s sort of this cycle continuing, is that the more fans that leave, the more fans watch, so corporate America is paying even more attention and wanting to get more invested. … What we’ve seen is that the Women’s Final Four, for example “Tourney Town” and other ancillary events, has certainly increased the number of activations. They’re doing more unique activations to cater to the type of fan demographic we have. These unique elements are great storylines we see in women’s sports.

There was a lot of discussion last year around the idea of ​​combining the men’s and women’s Final Fours. Is there an appetite for this at the moment?

Holzmann: In terms of attendance, we have a full house (the Women’s Final Four) every year. We continue, obviously, to find many ways to elevate the event and position ourselves uniquely and differently from the men’s Final Four. So there is no current discussion about it, but none of us know what the future holds.

How much does the continuity of women’s basketball, in that there are no people turning professional after just one season and there is less churn, contribute to this growth?

Holzmann: It is extremely valuable. A lot of the changes that have happened within the NCAA, around opportunities (NIL), social media platforms that are there for self-promotion or programs to promote, and opportunities to tell those stories (are important). We know from fan data that fans want to find ways to connect with women’s sports, women athletes, and women’s basketball players. This has been a constant thread over the years that we need to continue to nurture to keep these fans invested. We have great opportunities ahead of us to continue to seize and evolve as the world changes.

Taking all of these things into account, how will you capitalize on the current momentum in women’s college basketball?

Holzmann: It’s important to note that women’s basketball in the United States is in a very unique position. We go straight from the college game, to the WNBA draft, to the WNBA season. This year we had the Olympics and now we’re in the WNBA Finals. (Now) we’re about to start the women’s college basketball season again, so it’s a year-round opportunity. When you talk about women’s basketball, generating and growing that fan base, and the opportunity for fans to stay engaged, knowing the names of the players, who they are as they progress through these levels, it’s a great opportunity for us and the WNBA.

Then, as we move forward, I would say there are three main areas that we need to focus on: it’s about the game, the championship and the brand.

The game: We must, as many sports do, continue to be attentive and modern in the sense of our rules of play, their execution and the way in which they are refereed on the field. It affects players when they do what they do on the field, as they get bigger, faster, stronger, athleticism, all that.

The Championship: It continues to be attentive to the student-athlete experience, just for women’s basketball, but also in conjunction with men’s basketball, to make sure that where we need it, it’s the same type of experience for our teams, our programs and fan experiences. There is more to sports than just the game itself that takes place when the clock is ticking. It’s a large-scale event – ​​and it’s our championship.

The brand, for me, revolves around deal opportunities with ESPN. It’s our social media that we support even here at the NCAA. How can we support our student-athletes and coaches through all of this? We need to make sure that we’re very mindful of that and really building on some of those foundational elements, while still continuing to be innovative.