Latest / Raising the Game: Covering WNBA, NWSL, PWHL & More / Episode 12 | WNBA CBA Transformational Deal, Women's Tackle Football, Women's Leagues Roundup

Transcript

Episode 12 | WNBA CBA Transformational Deal, Women's Tackle Football, Women's Leagues Roundup · Raising the Game: Covering WNBA, NWSL, PWHL & More

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  And women have just are completely different from that
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  biologically, and we really need to be thoughtful about how we
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  support female athletes in a very different way than men's
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  athletes. Hi, I'm Caitlin.
• 0:30
  Hi, I'm Alex. And this is Raising the Game, a
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  women's sports podcast covering primetime performers, the
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  business behind the athletes and leagues, and what the growth of
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  women's sports means for the next generation of women's
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  athletes. And we're back again.
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  We are we. Have.
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  Another week. We finally get to talk about it.
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  You guys, the WNBA, CBA, we have an agreement.
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  Yes, we do. We're also going to talk, I
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  think, a new sport that we haven't talked about yet.
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  Yes, Woman's National Football Conference.
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  Yes, they tackle. Yes, full contact football.
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  And they start soon here. And they start this.
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  Weekend, yeah. And I think we're also going to
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  talk just some storylines around the rest of the leagues that
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  we're we've covered. Yeah, there's so much going on
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  right now between March Madness, the playoff push and the PWHL
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  and the NWSL firing up that there's we just got to cover.
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  We got to cover it all. So we'll get into a roundup of
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  those things. But a couple announcements right
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  off the bat. We're coming down to the end of
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  March, Women's History Month. And to celebrate and also to
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  accommodate for our spring break plans with our kids, we plan on
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  recording an episode and airing it next week on our usual
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  schedule. That is more about the history
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  of women's sports, doing a little bit of a overview of some
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  of The Pioneers in women's sports history who have brought
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  us to this point in time. So just as a heads up, next
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  week's episode will not have updates on status of these
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  leagues or anything like that. We'll come back with that for
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  our first April episode, but just giving you a heads up
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  before you tune in next week. And luckily we got the CBA
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  before we recorded. This We didn't have to.
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  We didn't have to do an emergency recording.
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  Breaking news from our hotel room in the Wisconsin Dells.
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  One other announcement. Super cool.
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  I don't know if you want to talk about this, but we have a, what
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  I'd call maybe like a weekly episode recap.
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  Yeah. You can sign up to have hit your
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  inbox. Yeah.
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  So we have, I mean we have the recaps, we've been posting on
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  our website. We've set up a sub stack which
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  is going to have a little bit of a recap.
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  We're going to have some things that we maybe talked about but
• 2:53
  didn't really go deep into and then kind of a another spot for
• 2:57
  the kind of what to watch every week.
• 2:59
  Yeah, so, so you head to our website.
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  Yeah, you'll get a little pop up for like a stub, a sub stack
• 3:06
  sign up and that'll just come every Friday.
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  Yeah. So we can land right in your
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  inbox. You'll have everything we we
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  dove into and then some. So that's all for announcements
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  we'll move into. You've got to be favorite.
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  Thing I wonder what it could be. OK don't get it twisted if our
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  for our YouTube audience or when you see clips of this.
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  I am wearing a badger's hat, and I have good reason to be wearing
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  a badger's hat, but I am wearing maroon.
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  I want to make it. Clear we went to this is
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  probably both our favorite thing.
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  We went to the women's Gopher basketball round of 32 game on
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  Sunday, right? So they're playing for a bid to
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  get to the Sweet 16. If you or anywhere on the
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  Internet, you've probably seen clips of the game-winning shot
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  by Maya Battle. What a game.
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  That was insane. That was that was my first time
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  at Williams Arena and it was just electric.
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  It was packed, it was loud, it was just non-stop.
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  Yeah, I it so it was a completely impromptu buy for us
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  just to go. We were like, what the heck,
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  let's take the girls For me. It was really nostalgic, so I
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  came up in the era of Lindsay Whalen and Janelle Mccarville,
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  and actually the last time that the Gophers made it to the Sweet
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  16 was I was in high school. And so it was so cool to be back
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  in that environment. 10,700 fans.
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  It was crazy. I was reading some stuff today
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  saying that like the the crowd, what they call like the crowd
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  pop when that shot ran in was like probably one of the better
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  crowd pops that you'll hear for the size of the venue, how
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  filled it was. And what I loved the most, too,
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  was like just seeing all of the young girls they're watching.
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  And what's extra special I think about that the Gopher women's
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  basketball team is they're many of their stars played high
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  school. Yeah, right here.
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  Within 40 miles of the Twin Cities.
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  They all grew up in that same all grew up era, right?
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  Like that Wayland era? Yep, and it's pretty crazy to to
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  for for young girls to sort of watch that like pipeline of like
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  hometown hero into college and just to get to experience that
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  was really cool. So like we said, first Sweet 16
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  appearance since 2005, you guys 21 years I think old.
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  I think my favorite, I mean besides our oldest was really
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  seemed pretty into it. I think it's it was kind of one
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  of those things where like I think we're right before we
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  walked in, there was the big March Madness sign.
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  I was like, Oh my gosh, we're at a March Madness game.
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  Like for my whole life, it was just a thing that it happened on
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  TV every year. Yeah, that was it's.
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  Far away from you, right? That was really cool.
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  Just wanted like, couple shout outs.
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  I mean, first of all, it was it was a really competitive game.
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  I think Ole Miss actually really had a great game plan.
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  You could tell they came in super physical.
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  They were going to get in the passing lanes.
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  They were going to body up the Gophers, really try to disrupt.
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  But I think the Gophers showed what I've now kind of read and
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  what we've seen over the course of this season.
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  Just like that resiliency and that teamworkness.
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  Yeah, so it was super cool. One other thing I've I do have
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  to shout out the blanket lady Peps Newman.
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  So the Gophers. So if you haven't heard about
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  Peps, there's this 80 plus year old woman at who's been to the
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  Gopher women's basketball games for like the last 30 some odd
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  years. And in that time she was gifted
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  this blanket by another fan. And now she will take the
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  blanket out and she'll like run up and down the side of of the
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  of the barn. The Williams Arena at the barn
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  is the colloquial term for the stadium.
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  And they're like 31 and 9 since she started doing this.
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  What I didn't realize about Peps Newman is that she was actually,
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  she's actually a that women's basketball pioneer.
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  So she. Grew up.
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  In Minnesota, she grew up on a farm.
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  She loved basketball, wanted to play.
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  They wouldn't let her play on the boys high school team.
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  And so by the time she got to her senior year, this was in the
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  50s, she got a teacher to help her start like a a A-Team where
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  she could go play exhibition games.
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  So she's actually the pioneer of high school women girls
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  basketball in the state of Minnesota.
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  And so it's super cool. And I the Gophers were down by
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  like 1210 points when and then she did her run.
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  And suddenly we're they won. Yeah, we won.
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  It was. It was so good.
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  So if you can't tell, we were we were into it.
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  It was super fun. Now they have the lovely task of
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  likely taking on UCLA. That game is happening right
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  now, but either them or Oak State so.
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  All right. Should we move on to headlines?
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  Move on to headlines. All right.
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  We like, like we said, we have a WNBACBA, we're going to talk
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  about it. We're not going to go in.
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  But we had to announce it. It felt like headlines.
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  Yes, yes, FIFA announces that woman's teams must have at least
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  two women staff members, and at least one of those must be
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  either an assistant or head coach in order to compete in
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  FIFA tournaments. Yeah, this is interesting.
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  Probably something we'll talk about more on a later episode.
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  This actually applies to both national teams and club teams.
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  So because FIFA has like the Champions Cups now where you
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  have club teams play against one another within their rules,
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  that's going to be really interesting to watch.
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  You know, here for the NWSLI don't I have no idea what the
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  current ratios are, but I do know that in the last Women's
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  World Cup, I believe it was like 12 of the 32 teams had female
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  women's head coaches, right? Not to say that they didn't have
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  assistant coaches, but I think I I'm not a huge fan of this being
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  like a mandatory rule. I want to make sure that like
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  the right people are in the right roles.
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  But but I do think there are plenty of highly qualified women
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  out there. And I also think it's worth
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  exploring potentially why women don't get there, right?
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  And like I said later episode, but there's a whole host of
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  reasons why women don't end up in those those positions, those
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  leadership positions. We'll talk about that at a
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  different. I've got a million questions and
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  thoughts running through my mind on that, so definitely worth
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  worth diving into. In NWSL weekend action, Angel
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  City FC, Houston Dash and Portland Thorns score emphatic
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  victories to take top of table honors.
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  Expansion sides Denver and Boston struggle to find rhythm.
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  Yeah, this. It was interesting.
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  Second weekend, Angel City FC, who finished kind of like middle
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  ish middle bottom of the table last year, already seven goals
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  on the season, looking really, really solid.
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  Portland somehow 1-2 to zero with 9 players on the field.
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  And that leads me to so far this season.
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  So we've played two weekends, right?
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  Every team's played two games. There have been 6 red cards
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  issued. Last season, in total, there
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  were 12. All right, So we're off to an
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  interesting place. Yeah.
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  And it's kind of it'll be something to watch, I think.
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  How do players adjust? Is this like, are the refs a
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  little jump because the season's just starting?
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  Like, what's going on there? So.
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  In the NWSL, Gotham FC announced first ever match at the New York
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  Mets home Citi Field, which has a capacity of 42,000.
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  This is going to be cool. This will be a rematch of last
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  year's final against the Washington Spirit.
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  That game's going to be played on July 15th.
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  Yeah, it's kind of a Who are they playing?
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  Washington Spirit. Oh, the Washington spirit.
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  OK, I missed that part. Yeah, I said that.
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  I think yeah. Denver Summit add Yasmine Ryan
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  and Delaney Sheehan from Houston Dash for 800,000 transfer fee,
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  bringing experienced champions into the new young club.
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  Yeah, this is this is interesting to see some moves
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  there. I actually felt like Denver was
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  lacking like a true scoring threat kind of that position.
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  We've talked about Yasmine Ryan brings that she's in the US
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  women's national team rotation from time to time, but they
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  notched their first point in club history with his one one
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  draw over the Orlando Pride with the Orlando Pride over the
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  weekend. So maybe they can right it
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  upwards into their big game this coming weekend.
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  Absolutely Minnesota Frost moves to top spot in PWHL standings
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  behind five game win streak with Boston and Montreal still
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  solidly rounding out the top three.
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  Fight for final playoff spot is still tight with 9 games to go.
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  And I've got this in my story. We're going to talk.
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  About it, it's going to be a battle.
• 12:31
  Ariel's project, a global asset manager run by Melody Hobson, is
• 12:34
  seeking $1 billion for its first round focus on women's sports.
• 12:38
  Another one that we probably can look more into is to like,
• 12:42
  they're, they're seeking this funding, where are they planning
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  for it to go? Like what's the, what's the play
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  there? But it's really interesting to
• 12:51
  see a global asset manager seeking capital fundraising for
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  women's sports. Yeah, in such a large amount,
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  too. Host of superstar athletes
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  including Asia Wilson, Megan Rapinoe, Sue Bird and Alex
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  Morgan announced the JP Morgan Chase Athlete Council, dedicated
• 13:09
  to helping athletes navigate every aspect of their financial
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  lives. Yeah, so they're doing this
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  alongside some men's athletes like Tom Brady and Dwyane Wade.
• 13:18
  Just we've talked about this before about how athletes, you
• 13:23
  come in out of college, maybe sign a big contract and like all
• 13:27
  of a sudden have no idea how to manage that money.
• 13:31
  And I think it's, it's a really interesting contrast on the
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  men's and the women's side because obviously the men's
• 13:36
  sports are better funded. They get bigger paychecks.
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  The women aren't able to retire on what they make during their
• 13:45
  playing days. And so how do they get support
• 13:47
  in figuring out how to invest smartly, how to save, how to set
• 13:51
  things aside and then turn that into something that they can,
• 13:55
  you know, live off of once they're done or convert it into
• 13:59
  some other income streams? I mean, a lot of us come up in
• 14:03
  the same school, type of schooling.
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  We don't get that. We don't get any.
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  Financial information in the American school system.
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  Clip anybody? With that, it's good to see
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  Japan wins Asia Cup over Australia, punching their ticket
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  to the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup ahead of three friendlies
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  against the United States women's national team in
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  mid-april. Yeah, so this was this.
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  There's a couple of interesting things coming out.
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  So they beat Australia, which is a big deal.
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  Australia has been super competitive.
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  They've had a huge following. They had almost 75,000 people at
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  this final game. Now it was in Sydney, Australia.
• 14:40
  The Aussies love their women's sports over there.
• 14:44
  But, you know, I don't, I didn't get to look into it if Australia
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  has another way of qualifying for the tournament or if like
• 14:52
  that was it for them, some of these smaller confederations
• 14:56
  just like that's kind of it and then you're in.
• 14:59
  But something else that I picked up on coming out of this was the
• 15:03
  US women's national team stars Naomi Germa and Sam Coffey
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  actually posted a video where they're speaking up on behalf of
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  the women's football clubs as part of the Asian Football
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  Confederation for equal pay right now, those women's teams
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  in that Asian Cup tournament, which they had used to qualify
• 15:24
  for the World Cup, right? They received 12% of the
• 15:29
  winnings of, of, of the like proportionately of the winnings
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  of the men's side. Wow.
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  Yeah, that's insane. That's egregious in review.
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  And so they're speaking up on behalf of that.
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  I think of course, the the women of the US national team know the
• 15:45
  fight that it requires. And so it's it's awesome to see
• 15:48
  them kind of showing that support.
• 15:50
  Yeah, exactly. Wisconsin holds off a third
• 15:54
  period surge by Ohio State to win back-to-back national
• 15:57
  championships in women's hockey. Should we count them?
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  Should we count them? Everyone.
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  It's one. It's 2345678 9 Maddies for the
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  women's Badgers hockey team. It is their fifth in the last
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  eight years. And I will also add, not in the
• 16:22
  final game, but in that semi final game against Penn State,
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  who took them, took them to the wire.
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  Yeah, they did. They set a Frozen women's Frozen
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  4 attendance record with almost 5200 people.
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  So everyone watches. They do women's sports.
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  In NCAA woman's gymnastics, Florida stuns stacked SEC field
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  to take tournament crown. Yeah, We had this on just all
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  night on Saturday night and just kind of had it on while we were,
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  I don't know, doing some stuff on computers.
• 16:52
  But incredible performance on uneven bars from Selena Harris.
• 16:57
  Miranda, she scored a perfect ten.
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  And the announcers were literally saying Allie Reisman
• 17:02
  was helping announce and they were like, if they don't give
• 17:05
  her a 10, I don't know what a 10 is, right?
• 17:07
  And this was before she had finished her routine.
• 17:09
  So yeah, big win for Florida coming in upsetting I think
• 17:12
  Oklahoma, who had won the regular season tournament.
• 17:15
  Others, other big names in, in CC gymnastics in LSU and Alabama
• 17:22
  in that meet as well. UCLA just moving over to the Big
• 17:26
  10 quickly, predictably swept, you know, between the the
• 17:31
  regular season and the, the tournament behind Jordan Childs.
• 17:35
  She scored more perfect 10s. She's insane.
• 17:39
  But just to put the SEC quality into perspective.
• 17:43
  So UCLA won the Big 10 tournament over the weekend by
• 17:47
  0.625 points. OK, the SEC was separated.
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  The top four teams were separated by 0.7.
• 18:00
  So they were all within basically the margin of what
• 18:05
  UCLA won the Big 10 tournament. That's crazy, right?
• 18:09
  So just saying like, you know, in Florida edged out Oklahoma by
• 18:13
  .025 S, like the competitiveness in the SEC is pretty
• 18:17
  incomparable. It will be interesting as they
• 18:20
  move to regionals now and things like that.
• 18:22
  See how that see how UCLA does. Yeah.
• 18:25
  The Sweet 16 is almost set with almost all high seeds of vancing
• 18:30
  except for Iowa, who was dropped by Virginia.
• 18:33
  Yeah, it's been, that's been interesting.
• 18:34
  We did see West Virginia A4 lose to Kentucky earlier.
• 18:38
  A5 and I had said at the outset that 45 grouping, which is what
• 18:43
  Minnesota was in and Ole Miss gave them a hell of a fight,
• 18:46
  right? It was going to be tough.
• 18:48
  I think you're seeing that the threes versus the sixes and the
• 18:53
  fours versus the fives where that's happened have been very
• 18:56
  competitive games, whereas the ones versus whoever and the twos
• 19:00
  versus whoever besides the Iowa game have been blowouts, right?
• 19:04
  I think we should have checked the other night.
• 19:07
  Our eldest daughter had picked all the high seas, which is
• 19:11
  essentially mostly what we were looking at except for Minnesota
• 19:15
  because we're from here and she was.
• 19:18
  She has to have one of the better brackets I've seen so
• 19:21
  far. Meanwhile, our youngest picked
• 19:23
  James Madison to win the whole thing.
• 19:25
  Because. She goes on vibes.
• 19:27
  Yeah, she's on. Vibes Justine Seagull is named
• 19:33
  first ever Women's Professional Baseball League commissioner.
• 19:37
  Yeah, so we are going to talk about women's professional
• 19:39
  football today, but we will talk about the Women's Professional
• 19:43
  Baseball League, which has its opening day on August 1st.
• 19:47
  Siegel was the first woman ever to coach a professional men's
• 19:52
  team, and she's actually thrown batting practice in the MLB.
• 19:57
  So she's got some good experience at a really, really
• 19:59
  high level. It'll be interesting to see what
• 20:01
  her leadership does for that league.
• 20:03
  Absolutely. Paralympics viewership numbers
• 20:05
  are in 414 million video views on the International Paralympic
• 20:10
  Committee's YouTube channel, up 712% from 2024 Paris
• 20:15
  Paralympics. That's just like, cool.
• 20:17
  That's crazy. It's cool.
• 20:20
  Jesse Diggins finishes her story cross country skiing career over
• 20:23
  the weekend, landing her 4th overall World Cup title.
• 20:27
  Legend. Yeah, I think we just had to
• 20:29
  call that out. She's, you know, from here,
• 20:32
  certainly the best, one of the best to ever do it so.
• 20:36
  Awesome. Well, let's, let's do it.
• 20:38
  Let's change hats. Caitlyn, for those of you on the
• 20:40
  on Spotify hot spot. Changing hats.
• 20:43
  Changing hat to our Minnesota Lynx hat.
• 20:44
  My Lynx hat because we are we are having a season we are we
• 20:49
  are having a season we can tell Kate we'll consider your season
• 20:52
  tickets now we got. Some questions now we've got.
• 20:55
  Questions. Now we've got questions, all
• 20:57
  right. So we as much as we've
• 21:01
  anticipated this, we're not going to go and deep dive on
• 21:04
  every single detail of the CBA. We are going to share some of
• 21:06
  them, how we got to this point, little brief overview and then
• 21:09
  Alex and I both have some points that we think are important
• 21:13
  coming out of this agreement. So how we got here, right?
• 21:18
  It took over 100 hours negotiating in New York City
• 21:23
  face to face between primarily kind of top dogs on the union
• 21:29
  side. We're going to be executive
• 21:31
  committee president Neka Gumuke and Brianna Stewart, who was one
• 21:35
  of the vice presidents. They were there the whole time.
• 21:38
  And then there was kind of a rotation of other exec Co
• 21:41
  players. Elisha Clark, Nefusa Collier
• 21:44
  flew in for a little while, Brianna Turner.
• 21:47
  So they had good representation. They obviously also had the
• 21:50
  union leadership, Terry Carmichael, Jackson and and some
• 21:53
  others, Deb Willig, probably who we talked about in the last
• 21:56
  episode. On the league side, Kathy
• 21:58
  Engelbert was there the whole time with her league crew.
• 22:01
  And then there were some ownership representation in
• 22:04
  Claire Woodside, who is the owner of the New York Liberty
• 22:09
  and Jennifer, Jennifer Rosati, excuse me, who's the president
• 22:17
  of the Connecticut Son. So they were there the whole
• 22:20
  time as well. So you can imagine sitting in
• 22:23
  like a board room, they probably would go away and come back.
• 22:27
  And it was like many, many days of 14/15/16 hours.
• 22:32
  So here's what they came up with all.
• 22:34
  Right, let's get into it. It's a seven-year term with an
• 22:37
  option to opt out and renegotiate at six years.
• 22:41
  So that was similar to what we similar to what we just saw.
• 22:44
  Yeah, salary cap went from 1.5 million in 2025 to 7 million.
• 22:53
  Yeah, that's a massive jump. Big jump, huge jump right now
• 22:57
  the players at certain points had wanted more than that.
• 22:59
  But like you know, we there was there was concessions is.
• 23:02
  That the immediate jump or is that overtime?
• 23:05
  That's the immediate jump. It's going to grow over time.
• 23:07
  So one thing that's really important to anchor in is that
• 23:11
  salary is now tied to revenue growth.
• 23:15
  Salary in the previous Cbas was always a fixed rate of increase
• 23:20
  regardless of growth at the league had, right.
• 23:22
  It was like a 3% or something like that increase.
• 23:25
  And now depending on what kind of revenue growth the league
• 23:29
  sees, that salary cap will adjust appropriately.
• 23:32
  Yeah. Right.
• 23:34
  So in addition to that $7,000,000 salary cap, we also
• 23:39
  have supermax salaries which are now 20% of that cap, which is
• 23:44
  about $1.4 million. This is up from $250,000 last
• 23:51
  season. It's actually like insane to
• 23:54
  think that that was their supermax salary last year.
• 23:58
  And you can start to see kind of their think about in these
• 24:00
  numbers like how egregiously off the compensation was from what
• 24:06
  the momentum at least around the league.
• 24:08
  Obviously we don't really know the numbers, but average salary
• 24:12
  then is up to 584 K. This is up from about 110120K.
• 24:18
  So a little 5 Xing happening there and then minimums now are
• 24:23
  $300,000. So if you just remember what I
• 24:27
  just said, the minimum salary now in the in the West is going
• 24:32
  to be more than the supermax was last year.
• 24:36
  So. Yeah.
• 24:40
  Flaps, ladies, like I said it last week, 10 toes down,
• 24:44
  standing on business. Can you imagine going from 67 to
• 24:49
  300 overnight basically? No, yeah, and 67 y'all for, for
• 24:54
  we didn't say this quite yet, but like that was what the men
• 24:57
  was the minimum was last season. So it's transformation.
• 25:02
  Times. Right.
• 25:03
  Yeah, I wrote that here on my call sheet actually
• 25:06
  transformational. In addition to all of this kind
• 25:10
  of salary shift, there's now 20% of gross revenues tied to
• 25:16
  revenue share, sorry, I should say.
• 25:19
  So 20% of gross revenue will be shared.
• 25:23
  So they somehow they figured out how to meet in the middle and
• 25:27
  then rookie contracts scale to at least $300,000.
• 25:32
  So this was like, I think the most notable around this was
• 25:36
  when Caitlin Clark came into the league, everyone was like
• 25:41
  completely befuddled about how she was going to be making like
• 25:44
  $70,000 a year even though she's they were literally moving games
• 25:49
  to. Larger arenas for.
• 25:51
  Her and selling them out. So couple other miscellaneous
• 25:54
  things that I think are really important.
• 25:59
  Players have to consent to a trade if they are pregnant
• 26:04
  before the trade happens. Think of the reverse of that,
• 26:07
  like at some point some player was just traded while she was
• 26:12
  pregnant, right? Without her consent.
• 26:15
  I always think about, sorry, I'm going to go on a tangent for a
• 26:18
  second, but I always think about how, like, you get a cup of
• 26:20
  coffee from somewhere and it's like, caution contents are hot
• 26:24
  and that has to be on the cup because somebody once spilled
• 26:27
  the hot coffee themselves and then sued whoever gave you the
• 26:30
  coffee. Like someone once got traded.
• 26:34
  Yeah, while they were pregnant without their consent.
• 26:36
  Well, imagine just like uproot your life if anyone, any of our
• 26:39
  listeners have had kids, imagine you get used to your doctor.
• 26:43
  Like you go to the same doctor, you're expecting to see them or
• 26:46
  right, you're going to go to the place that you know how to have
• 26:49
  a kid, or you've seen you've toured or you're near.
• 26:52
  Family or you're near like your support network and those kinds
• 26:55
  of things. It's yes.
• 26:57
  They now are required to carry a 12 player roster.
• 27:00
  We've talked about this before, especially with injuries.
• 27:04
  There were times where teams were running on 910 players,
• 27:07
  which is very difficult, especially late in the West
• 27:11
  season. It's very physical and so now
• 27:14
  they have to have a 12 player roster.
• 27:16
  They also have a developmental player pool whose salaries do
• 27:20
  not contribute to the salary cap Max, which is great.
• 27:24
  There's accelerated pathways for Max contracts, for those on
• 27:29
  those players, on rookie contracts and then retiree back
• 27:34
  pay based on years of service. So that means that all the women
• 27:39
  who trailblazed this growth now based on their years of service
• 27:44
  are going to get some amount of money to help kind of compensate
• 27:48
  that and maybe help out their retirement periods as well.
• 27:51
  So one word for it, it, it truly is transformational.
• 27:56
  I've seen a lot of opinions out there of people being excited,
• 28:01
  people being like, it's not enough.
• 28:03
  It's a lot. And I think it's worth
• 28:06
  celebrating. And I think we always knew that
• 28:08
  this was going to be a step. I think at least they have some
• 28:13
  of the things like salary cap tied to revenue, right?
• 28:18
  Like where depending on what happens next, like they control
• 28:22
  a little bit more of their destiny certainly than they did
• 28:24
  before. I think it's nice that the tied
• 28:26
  to revenue growth just kind of made me think it kind of puts a
• 28:30
  check on the league overspending things now like, 'cause we we've
• 28:34
  talked about this, right? Like they could spend whatever
• 28:36
  they wanted to and say, oh, there wasn't anything left over.
• 28:38
  You girls don't get paid and now it's like we have to pay them
• 28:42
  this much. We can't go overspending on this
• 28:44
  or that or whatever it is. Yeah, yeah.
• 28:47
  So I think we'll see how it plays out.
• 28:50
  I think the other piece of this coming out of it that's really,
• 28:53
  really important is that according to Kathy Engelbert, at
• 28:57
  the end of negotiations, they were not expecting the timeline
• 29:02
  to get disrupted. So they are still targeting that
• 29:05
  May 8th regular season tip off. But my point of interest now is
• 29:12
  we have a wild April. Yeah, insane.
• 29:17
  So we have to do, we've said this before on the Pod 2
• 29:21
  expansion team drafts. So Toronto Tempo, Portland Fire
• 29:24
  currently have no players, right?
• 29:26
  So they got to do their expansion team draft.
• 29:28
  Then you've got this free agency for over 100 players, like over
• 29:33
  80% of the league are free agents right now that need to
• 29:36
  get signed to contracts. And then you have the college
• 29:39
  draft on April 13th, I think it is with training camp starting
• 29:43
  on the 19th. So and that's, you know, 13th is
• 29:46
  going to be like right after the tournament finishes.
• 29:50
  I wanted to touch on these a little bit.
• 29:52
  So that expansion draft is going to be interesting.
• 29:55
  There's certain ways that teams can protect certain players.
• 29:59
  What I don't really understand, I was unable to get a read on,
• 30:02
  is like, no one is signed to a contract, so are they able to be
• 30:07
  protected? And then if the expansion draft
• 30:11
  is just like a free for all on everyone, like who's to say that
• 30:17
  Toronto Tempo and the Portland Fire don't take like, you know,
• 30:21
  you got to construct your roster in a way that allows you to meet
• 30:23
  those salary cap needs, but wasn't clear on that.
• 30:26
  So I want to go look into that a little bit more.
• 30:30
  The other thing that's interesting about free agency,
• 30:32
  and this was something I hadn't allowed myself to think about
• 30:35
  prior to the CBA getting signed, is I like, as a Lynx fan, I
• 30:42
  can't fathom my team without a physical and she's a.
• 30:46
  Free agent. Like I would assume that the
• 30:50
  links are going to supermax. I don't know why you wouldn't.
• 30:54
  It's been reported that the aces are going to supermax Asia
• 30:58
  Wilson. Smart move.
• 30:59
  Makes sense. It would make sense for the New
• 31:01
  York Liberty to supermax Brianna Stewart, although there's
• 31:04
  questions about that because you kind of have two superstars over
• 31:08
  there with Sabrina and Nescu. And so and then the lace, the
• 31:12
  aces are completely like, how do you solve that Rubik's Cube?
• 31:17
  Because you've got Asia Wilson, but then you've got Chelsea
• 31:20
  Gray, Jackie Young, Jewel Lloyd. Like I don't know how you how
• 31:25
  you make that work. Are they trying to get it done
• 31:26
  all the free agency done before these drafts?
• 31:29
  No, the expansion drafts happened before free agency.
• 31:32
  Yeah. So I don't it's going to be
• 31:34
  really interesting to watch. Like I'll keep my be keeping my
• 31:38
  phone closed. That's wild.
• 31:40
  But we could see we could come out of April and like the season
• 31:44
  be starting with like almost completely different teams than
• 31:47
  what we're used to, yeah. That'd be weird.
• 31:49
  And some of these teams you like, you can't imagine them
• 31:52
  without their like main star. I can't imagine the Mercury
• 31:56
  without Alyssa Thomas. Thomas, sorry, that's hard to.
• 31:59
  Say I mean like you said, us without a fee would be insane.
• 32:04
  Yeah, it's crazy. Kelsey Mitchell could leave the
• 32:07
  fever. Like, I don't know.
• 32:10
  So that's going to be we'll, we'll be keeping a really close
• 32:12
  eye on that. I've been wanting to buy a
• 32:15
  Collier jersey. But now you're kind of like, I'm
• 32:18
  going to wait just a minute here.
• 32:19
  I'm like, I probably still would buy one, but I'm like I'm I'm.
• 32:23
  Hesitating a little. Bit I'm hesitating also, you
• 32:27
  know, just like the stud buds, like we had so much fun last.
• 32:31
  Year with the links. Like that crew was so good.
• 32:33
  It's almost like I can't imagine any of those players going
• 32:36
  anywhere. Yeah.
• 32:38
  We got to keep Dejanet though. She's a treasure.
• 32:41
  National treasure protect that woman at all costs her in the
• 32:44
  blanket Lady Peps Newman and Dejanet with their with their
• 32:49
  blankets towels. And then so last thing I think
• 32:53
  I've certainly been watching the NCAA women's college tournament
• 32:59
  and I'm I've got an eye now for who are some of the players that
• 33:03
  are coming out of that that are going to be trying to look to
• 33:06
  increase their draft stock. And what I keep thinking about
• 33:11
  watching those women is what a time for.
• 33:15
  You. Oh yeah.
• 33:15
  Perfect. Because you are now entering
• 33:17
  into a league where you are going to make bank, like
• 33:21
  legitimately make bank and and be valued for what you're
• 33:27
  bringing to the table. So Arizona Fudd Olivia Miles,
• 33:32
  like Lauren Betts, I see you, we see you.
• 33:37
  We are so happy for you. And frankly, I'll finish with
• 33:42
  this. I've seen a lot of people
• 33:44
  commentating that you go to AW game if one of the exec
• 33:49
  committee players is playing in that game and they get announced
• 33:52
  like it's going to go standing ovation for these players all
• 33:55
  season long because they stood on business.
• 33:59
  They did not back down. They were resolute in what they
• 34:02
  wanted and frankly, I think they got.
• 34:05
  It they got it, I think they did.
• 34:07
  I think it was this is a huge step forward for them.
• 34:10
  Yeah. All right.
• 34:12
  I the the thing that I found really interesting in all this
• 34:14
  is this new provision called the epic rule.
• 34:18
  So this is the exceptional performance on initial contract
• 34:21
  rule, which is part of this new CBA.
• 34:23
  This allow players who have made an all WNBA team, first or
• 34:27
  second team to negotiate the fourth year, the 4th year salary
• 34:33
  up to a maximum contract or a player who has won an MVP to be
• 34:38
  eligible to negotiate up to a super Max.
• 34:41
  So you have to sign a three-year extension with the team that
• 34:45
  you're on and the like I said, it's all WNBA teams for the Max,
• 34:52
  MVP for the Super Max. And I picked out three players
• 34:57
  that I think could potentially be part of this, right?
• 35:00
  The last three rookies of the year.
• 35:02
  Yes, yeah. So we've got Aaliyah Boston.
• 35:04
  She's entering the fourth year of her rookie contract and my
• 35:07
  understanding is she can actually go back.
• 35:09
  It's like a retroactive thing. She could go back and
• 35:13
  renegotiate her contract with the Fever.
• 35:16
  She was an all WNBA second team selection in 2025.
• 35:21
  S the Fever could now go back and say we're going to lock you
• 35:25
  up for three more years at at the Max contract.
• 35:29
  Caitlin Clark, obviously, obviously all WNBA first team
• 35:32
  selection in 2024 would be eligible for the Max in 2027 and
• 35:39
  that would be 1.3. What is that?
• 35:42
  No, that's not right. Whatever the Max is in 2027,
• 35:46
  yeah, that was. Growth on top of the 1.4 we've
• 35:49
  talked about. And then if she were to win the
• 35:52
  MVP, say this year, she would be eligible for the supermax.
• 35:56
  Was she got a play? Yeah.
• 35:58
  I would love to see Caitlin Clark play.
• 36:00
  Full season. My notes here are literally I
• 36:03
  think the stat I saw is she shot like 37% from the floor.
• 36:07
  Yeah, like that's not gonna get you.
• 36:10
  Well, she like MVP, right? Yeah, I think.
• 36:13
  There's a lot of there's a lot of a lot of injury there.
• 36:15
  But yeah, so and then the last one here is Page Beckers was
• 36:20
  named to the All WNBA second Team in 2025, so she would be
• 36:25
  eligible for the Max in 2028. The question there, the question
• 36:30
  there is could you potentially get MVP and get a Super Max in
• 36:36
  Dallas, which didn't win 1/4 of their games last year.
• 36:40
  But we just talked about free agency with a lot of things
• 36:43
  could move here. I think a lot of things could
• 36:45
  move. I also just think Paige is like
• 36:48
  one of those players where. They might pair the Max anyways.
• 36:55
  Well, that and I think she is one of those transformational
• 36:59
  players that like, given enough time with the players around
• 37:03
  her, she can raise their level, right.
• 37:06
  And so I think I think there's possibility there.
• 37:09
  But yeah, it's it's. AI thought it was just a really
• 37:13
  cool thing that I don't I've not heard of before in any other
• 37:16
  sort of any other sort of sport. It's just kind of like you're up
• 37:19
  to, it's not like a rookie thing.
• 37:23
  It's just like, are you, do you come in and are you really good?
• 37:25
  And we're just going to extend you like on a normal contract.
• 37:27
  So you have that immediate impact and whatnot.
• 37:32
  Yeah, I love that. I think certainly worthwhile if
• 37:38
  you also think about the pipeline that's really been
• 37:41
  prominent in the growth that the West has experienced these last
• 37:46
  couple of years, really coming on the backs of the Caitlin
• 37:49
  Clarks, the Pagebackers and the Aaliyah Bostons, right?
• 37:52
  Like those are the players that came out of college with the NIL
• 37:58
  deals, the brand recognition, the name recognition that
• 38:02
  attracts viewership and therefore ticket sales and
• 38:05
  merchandise sales and all that stuff to the West.
• 38:09
  So they deserve it. They probably deserve more.
• 38:14
  It's awesome that they're able to do that now.
• 38:16
  Yeah. So we'll take it.
• 38:18
  All right, let's move on here. Women's National Football
• 38:22
  Conference. This is tackle football.
• 38:26
  Yo-yo, it's kind of funny. I was talking to a friend a
• 38:31
  couple weeks ago and she was like, we love sports in our
• 38:34
  house. We almost always have football
• 38:36
  on right when football's in season.
• 38:38
  And I was like, and she's like, but we got to be more conscious
• 38:41
  about watching women's sports 'cause they want their kids to
• 38:44
  to see that and have those examples for them.
• 38:48
  And I was like, funny thing, there is actually a women's
• 38:53
  National Football Conference that is full on tackle football.
• 38:58
  And you know what y'all? I learned that this league has
• 39:00
  been around for like 8 years. That that in the amount of teams
• 39:04
  blew my mind when you told me the other day.
• 39:06
  I know, I know, so let's talk about it.
• 39:09
  Founded in 2018, the Women's National Football Conference at
• 39:13
  the WNFC played its first season in 2019.
• 39:19
  It's now in its sixth year. I think I said 8, but six years
• 39:22
  with 17 teams. I believe these are 16 like
• 39:26
  standard teams and there's one exhibition team which seems to
• 39:29
  be how they do maybe some market testing with players from 20
• 39:34
  plus countries, which is wild. I seen some videos on Instagram
• 39:40
  of some of the players from Mexico, Spain, like all over
• 39:44
  Europe, all over Latin America. Really really.
• 39:49
  I I honestly like didn't realize that this had as much of A
• 39:52
  following as it does. Yeah, I mean, even with the NFL
• 39:54
  going over to like London and Germany and all those other
• 39:57
  places, it's obviously there's fans there.
• 40:00
  But I've always thought of football as American and maybe
• 40:03
  Canadian like. Yes, yeah.
• 40:07
  The mission here is really explicit, like it's very
• 40:11
  straightforward if you go visit their website.
• 40:13
  But they want to accelerate, accelerate financial equity for
• 40:18
  women through football. And I was like, that is
• 40:22
  fascinating. It's like so many layers there.
• 40:26
  Their championship is called the Nine Cup, so this is named after
• 40:31
  Title 9. It usually happens kind of in
• 40:33
  the June time frame after the regular season wraps and the
• 40:37
  20259 cup was aired live on ESPN 2 And this was the league's
• 40:43
  first live TV broadcast. They had 150,000 viewers, which
• 40:49
  I didn't even know it existed. So that's pretty cool.
• 40:51
  That's awesome. It had that many people.
• 40:53
  I feel like now that we're talking about it and it's going
• 40:56
  to blow up, right? But here's here's the cool
• 41:00
  thing. So think, thinking back to like
• 41:01
  that woman I saw on Instagram, 15 + 1,000,000 social media
• 41:07
  followers across the different athletes and the Women's
• 41:11
  National Football Conference, you know, Instagrams and in
• 41:14
  reels and tick tocks and whatnot.
• 41:17
  It is one of the fastest growing sports properties in the US.
• 41:21
  Wow. So, well, it feels a little like
• 41:24
  a dark horse, like it's sprang up out of nowhere, like they
• 41:27
  have some serious momentum. Alex is going to take us
• 41:31
  through, like where are these teams located?
• 41:33
  How is this league structured? And then I'm going to talk about
• 41:36
  a couple of really interesting kind of business structures that
• 41:40
  they have supporting their pipeline, kind of their growth
• 41:44
  flywheel and some of their media stuff.
• 41:47
  Yeah. So we do have 16 teams, like you
• 41:50
  said, we do have 4 divisions as well.
• 41:52
  And I'm going to look at my notes here quite a bit because
• 41:56
  these are some there's some fun names.
• 41:58
  They're jazzy. So we've got the Pacific
• 42:00
  Division, we have the Golden State Storm, which is new team
• 42:04
  for this year, Las Vegas Silver Stars, Los Angeles Legends, and
• 42:08
  the San Diego Rebellion. In the Northwest Division we
• 42:12
  have the Kansas City Glory, Oregon Raven, Seattle Majestics
• 42:17
  and the Utah Falcons. With AZ.
• 42:20
  It has AZ on the end, the Central Division we have the
• 42:24
  Chicago Winds, Mississippi Panthers, Tennessee Trojans and
• 42:29
  the Texas Elite Spartans. In the Atlantic Division we have
• 42:33
  the Atlanta Truth, Florida Avengers, the Jersey Shore Wave
• 42:39
  and the Washington Prodigy. And.
• 42:42
  They just like thesaurus. It's like they have like one of
• 42:46
  those those 1990s team name generators on some of these.
• 42:50
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So the I think the the one thing
• 42:55
  here is the Golden State is a new team for this year.
• 42:58
  So we're going to kind of see how they do there.
• 43:01
  The season is kicking off this weekend.
• 43:03
  On Saturday they kick it off against the San Diego Rebellion
• 43:07
  in Oakland. I think you did already say
• 43:10
  this. The season runs from this
• 43:12
  weekend through about mid-May and then they have a eight team
• 43:17
  playoff that goes into that middle of June championship.
• 43:21
  Game good deal. All these games are available to
• 43:26
  stream for free on Victory Plus, which you've heard that here a
• 43:30
  few times and occasional games on ESPN now.
• 43:34
  I think outside of outside of the championship, there will be
• 43:37
  a few games here and there on ESPN and then also Women's
• 43:41
  Sports Network if you get that. Yeah, which we do.
• 43:44
  We do. We do we.
• 43:45
  Get that? That's awesome.
• 43:48
  The next thing I wanted to talk the Texas Elite.
• 43:53
  Spartans have a great name because that's really what they
• 43:57
  are, Elite defending champs 8 and one.
• 44:00
  Last year they had a + 259 point differential.
• 44:06
  How many games do they play? 8 and 19. 9 games.
• 44:10
  And they had a plus. That's a lot.
• 44:12
  Their defense, so I didn't look up the offense if the offense
• 44:14
  gave up any points on turnovers, but the defense only allowed 26
• 44:19
  points all season, not average all season.
• 44:24
  So less than three points per game.
• 44:26
  Yes, yes. OK.
• 44:28
  Yes, OK. They are led by Michelle Angel.
• 44:33
  She is QB and last year's team MVP and one of the most accurate
• 44:38
  quarterbacks in league history. Along with her, the defensive
• 44:44
  MVP of the league that is the leader of that 26 point allowing
• 44:49
  defense is Jewel Grimsley. So you have like essentially two
• 44:56
  of the best players on offense. Yeah, and the defence MVP on the
• 45:00
  same team. And I mean, that's how they were
• 45:02
  able to get to an 8 and one record last year.
• 45:05
  We also have. Did they give up all their 26
• 45:09
  points? I should have maybe looked up
• 45:11
  how they lost because that would have been the more compelling
• 45:13
  storyline. Here I think it might have been.
• 45:16
  And then we also have Maria Jackson returning from an injury
• 45:19
  this year for the Spartans and is the league's all time leader
• 45:23
  in receiving touchdowns. OK, so plus ±259 like over under
• 45:29
  who you got? So you want to watch just
• 45:32
  dominant football performance like Alabama in the Nick Saban
• 45:36
  days or what have you, You go watch the Texas elite Spartans?
• 45:41
  Yes, if you want to watch competitive football, maybe
• 45:44
  watch Not Them. Yes, any of the other teams,
• 45:47
  probably. But you know what's cool about
• 45:48
  that is you have a really, really good team.
• 45:51
  You have a league like this, You've got competitive women,
• 45:54
  like that's going to raise the level across the board, right?
• 45:58
  Like and that's also going to raise the level of owners and
• 46:02
  people investing in this who want to grow their franchise to
• 46:06
  be competitive. Not that it's a franchise model.
• 46:08
  I think you're about to talk about that.
• 46:10
  Yeah. So next going into the the
• 46:13
  ownership model, they only have invited team owners from what I
• 46:19
  could gather. And it's mostly on a like are
• 46:22
  you a successful business owner? You have maybe either some
• 46:27
  connection or some way to bring in a connection to football,
• 46:32
  right. So they're they're really
• 46:33
  looking for people who are successful business wise and
• 46:35
  have some football set knowledgeable.
• 46:37
  About. It they do have kind of a, a
• 46:41
  main Advisory Board that's a lot of NFL former executives or
• 46:46
  coaches or players and then just a few kind of like other big
• 46:51
  business names that are in there.
• 46:53
  So there's about 10 of those there.
• 46:57
  And then I think the interesting other and the other thing about
• 47:02
  this business model is it's all by team and that Advisory Board
• 47:05
  doesn't really bring in money as an entity, but it does raise
• 47:12
  funds. And so in 2024, they were able
• 47:15
  to raise some seed funding or things like infrastructure.
• 47:21
  They're doing like a digital kind of revamp of how they
• 47:24
  present games on TV and online. And then just other things that
• 47:31
  can help kind of supplement the thing like medical things,
• 47:33
  things like that. Yeah, I think I'm going to get
• 47:35
  into the medical in a little bit here.
• 47:38
  So I think, yeah, we'll see maybe how that shifts, right.
• 47:44
  I think we've talked about this before, but there's sort of like
• 47:48
  a rising tide lifts all boats type of thing in women's sports
• 47:51
  where kind of attention and spotlight on one sort of sheds
• 47:55
  light on all the others. And so I do wonder if as people
• 48:01
  are seeking more of that environment atmosphere where you
• 48:06
  can watch women excel and achieve and you can show your
• 48:10
  young kids like, look, here is somebody who is successful, who
• 48:15
  looks like you, right? That we continue to see that
• 48:20
  funding come in, right? And it's it's, you know, more
• 48:23
  and more and more over time. So I think I'll, I'll just share
• 48:28
  three things that are really interesting about the league and
• 48:31
  where I think Alex mentioned this, but they're very like
• 48:36
  business oriented here, which I think is really important.
• 48:40
  Like I think they're thinking about this and really a lot of
• 48:43
  the right ways. A couple examples of that.
• 48:46
  So the first one is they have a charity or a kind of like their
• 48:52
  philanthropy arm called got her back.
• 48:55
  And what this is, is they go out and they do football camps
• 49:00
  basically like free clinics, camps, mentorship in different
• 49:05
  communities. And so I think they've they've
• 49:08
  managed to impact over 10,000 girls across 20 different events
• 49:12
  nationwide last year. And this is especially important
• 49:17
  to the founder, Odessa Jenkins. She is specifically named that
• 49:22
  girls of color need opportunities and need to see
• 49:26
  that pathway so that they don't get left behind.
• 49:30
  And I think that's really important to kind of, again,
• 49:34
  pull everybody through with you in competitive sport, especially
• 49:40
  at the youth level, what we're seeing more and more and more is
• 49:44
  that affluence allows you to play and compete and train at
• 49:49
  the higher levels. And so increasingly, we see
• 49:53
  children who maybe don't have as much of an economic advantage
• 49:59
  drop out because their parents can't afford it.
• 50:02
  They can't get them to practice. There's not an opportunity, it's
• 50:04
  not local, it's not close. They can't afford the equipment,
• 50:08
  right? And like, it's a real shame.
• 50:10
  And so I love that she's focused on that equity piece from a
• 50:14
  socio economic perspective, from a racial perspective, but also
• 50:20
  just in general, like you may have maybe some of our listeners
• 50:24
  have seen this statistic before, but girls drop out at like a 50%
• 50:29
  rate around age 14. And it's often because they,
• 50:32
  they can't find it like equipment that works for them,
• 50:36
  like for their bodies. So I just saw a couple weeks ago
• 50:40
  they sometimes do like sports bra drives and things like that.
• 50:44
  The Seattle Torrent did like instead of throwing your hats.
• 50:47
  On the roof for. A hat trick they, like, did a
• 50:50
  sports bra toss, right? And like, that might seem really
• 50:53
  silly to a lot of people, but like for women, for people with
• 50:59
  with breasts, like it's very uncomfortable to do a lot of the
• 51:03
  things that athletes have to do if you're not well supported.
• 51:07
  And so I love that they're emphasizing kind of like, let's
• 51:10
  keep as many people in the game as possible.
• 51:14
  I wonder how they what I'm not afraid of this.
• 51:18
  How do they like kind of there's a lot of going around with, you
• 51:23
  know, tackle football, There's the the idea of head injuries
• 51:26
  and like kids that young maybe shouldn't be doing that.
• 51:30
  How do I wonder how they are kind of like phrasing this, this
• 51:35
  whole pipeline of like, how do you keep someone in when parents
• 51:39
  are afraid of things like that? Or is it more just around the
• 51:42
  we're trying to keep the equity there more than anything?
• 51:45
  Well, I think this is more around inclusion and involvement
• 51:50
  and keeping the door open on the opportunity.
• 51:52
  I don't think this is about how are we addressing the real
• 51:56
  medical concerns around tackle football.
• 51:58
  I think that's one of my my third storyline here.
• 52:02
  I think this is around how do we provide young girls a space to
• 52:09
  go and explore this sport in a way that's safe and that lifts
• 52:13
  them up and doesn't make them feel less than right?
• 52:19
  Another thing that's really interesting that they're
• 52:20
  latching onto and we've talked about this the last couple weeks
• 52:24
  on the pod, but they, the ownership group is looking out
• 52:28
  at the 2028 Olympics. And you know what is coming to
• 52:31
  the 2028 Olympics? Flag football.
• 52:35
  And so now for the first time ever in this league, there's
• 52:37
  actually a flag football team associated with each tackle
• 52:41
  football team. It's for 18 plus.
• 52:44
  I'm tempted to go join. If they had a team in Minnesota,
• 52:46
  I would play. But they're looking at that and
• 52:50
  saying there's a flywheel here. Yeah, jumping on the Olympics
• 52:54
  bandwagon where if we can kind of create enough momentum this
• 52:59
  year and next heading into the Olympics, we create all kinds of
• 53:02
  exposure for our league. And so I love that foresight.
• 53:06
  I love, I love when we're thinking on game, right.
• 53:10
  And we talked about that with the NWSL last week in the
• 53:13
  Olympics and, and, and hockey as well.
• 53:16
  So I'm really excited to see what that's going to look like.
• 53:21
  In addition, the NFL right now is really partnering with flag
• 53:26
  football initiatives too. And so I actually wonder, too,
• 53:29
  if there is like, is there future collaboration there,
• 53:32
  right where that becomes something that they kind of
• 53:34
  latch onto and we start to talk about, does the Women's National
• 53:39
  Football Conference have brother teams in the NFL?
• 53:43
  Right. Yeah, that'd be cool.
• 53:45
  And then the third thing, you were talking about this from the
• 53:48
  perspective of CTEII was wondering this too.
• 53:51
  It was like, man football is a hard sell, right?
• 53:55
  Like I don't know that I would let my girls playing tackle
• 53:57
  football just with all the research.
• 54:00
  OK, so first thing, First things first, all the research and the
• 54:05
  outcomes are men. They don't have results or
• 54:10
  things looking at how does the sport affect women.
• 54:13
  Yep, right. It's likely.
• 54:15
  It's very likely that the forces created are not the same.
• 54:19
  Yeah, right. It's also very possible that a
• 54:23
  lot of the men who we are seeing come out with those injuries
• 54:27
  right now, we're at a really interesting crux point in men's
• 54:31
  football where the technology now and the awareness of that is
• 54:35
  so much greater. Yep.
• 54:37
  Right. Where I think you're gonna see
• 54:39
  like the current generation of players with less incident.
• 54:42
  Yeah, that. Yeah, because of the rule
• 54:43
  changes, because of those things.
• 54:44
  Equipment. And so I actually think we're at
• 54:46
  a read a good point for that. But what's really important,
• 54:49
  going back to all the research and the results we have are on
• 54:53
  men, is that all the research and all the results for most
• 54:58
  medical situations are of men. They're not of women.
• 55:02
  And what we really need, and what the Women's National
• 55:05
  Football Conference is putting a lot of emphasis behind, is a
• 55:08
  medical advisory group specific for female athletes.
• 55:14
  Thank you. Yeah, this is a trend we're
• 55:17
  seeing across multiple women's sports for the basically the
• 55:21
  reason I just mentioned. We have long been under training
• 55:27
  schedules, under season schedules, all sorts of things
• 55:30
  that are all associated with men and women have just are
• 55:37
  completely different from that biologically.
• 55:41
  And we really need to be thoughtful about how we support
• 55:48
  female athletes in a very different way than men's
• 55:52
  athletes, primarily due to hormonal cycles just being on a
• 55:56
  monthly basis versus a daily basis.
• 55:59
  So these this medical Advisory Board is going to support these
• 56:04
  women through psychiatry, sports medicine, endocrinology.
• 56:09
  So that's your hormones. Yeah.
• 56:11
  Surgery, performance science. Sorry, those are two separate
• 56:15
  things. Surgery, comma performance
• 56:18
  science, not performance surgery, TBI and concussion
• 56:23
  protocols. So they are thinking about that.
• 56:25
  One other thing that's really cool about this league is that
• 56:28
  they require, and I didn't look into if this is true in other
• 56:31
  leagues, but they require all coaches and staff to be CPRMAED
• 56:35
  certified. So they are looking out for
• 56:38
  players, right? They are not sitting there being
• 56:40
  like, you know, we all we need the athletic trainer.
• 56:43
  It's like, Nope, we all have to be.
• 56:44
  Solidified to do. This and so I think, you know,
• 56:49
  it's cool to see this. We're seeing it in other sports.
• 56:52
  It's so desperately needed. And I think as we continue to
• 56:56
  see this momentum with women's sports, like we have to be
• 57:00
  treating these women athletes the way that their bodies need
• 57:03
  to be treated. Right.
• 57:05
  Yeah, I think it's I think it's really interesting outside of
• 57:07
  sports, I think I've discussed with you in the past like around
• 57:10
  like mental health, a lot of that is all based on like boys
• 57:14
  and young men versus women. You have, you have no way to
• 57:18
  diagnose young women properly on on certain neurological or, you
• 57:24
  know, neurodivergences and things like that, which is a
• 57:27
  huge bummer. I think the other thing that
• 57:29
  I've seen actually a lot on socials in the past week or two
• 57:32
  is, you know, we talked a little bit earlier about how you might
• 57:39
  get they need some more women in FIFA, like more people on the
• 57:42
  staff. But what about the men who are
• 57:44
  actually really good at coaching soccer, things like that?
• 57:47
  And it's like, you could have someone who's really good at
• 57:50
  coaching men, but they also have this like an unconscious bias of
• 57:55
  like, I don't know about the hormones necessarily.
• 57:57
  Or maybe I've never thought about that and I haven't hired
• 58:00
  somebody to help me, like figure out how to do that.
• 58:03
  And so it's like they could be a very good coach at a thing, but
• 58:09
  they don't know that thing and it makes it less effective in
• 58:13
  coaching that team. Yeah, yes, 100%.
• 58:18
  I think just to like put a finer point on it, like I think this
• 58:22
  is one of the areas that I really gained a lot of respect
• 58:26
  for The now US women's national team head coach Mia is because
• 58:31
  she recognized years ago that training schedules and things
• 58:35
  have to be adjusted for women's cycles.
• 58:38
  Because if your hormones are not in the right, like levels, you
• 58:44
  are at higher risk of injury. Yeah, right.
• 58:46
  You are at higher kind of propensity for, you know, your
• 58:51
  focus being different. And as a coach, I want to
• 58:55
  approach that and handle that differently in that moment.
• 58:57
  And so I love her awareness around this.
• 59:00
  I love that we're talking about it more.
• 59:02
  And more who I thought of when you brought up that point, too.
• 59:04
  Yeah. So important.
• 59:07
  All right, that is the Women's National Football Conference
• 59:10
  starting this weekend. On Saturday.
• 59:13
  We'll go over it in What to watch as well, so.
• 59:15
  Yeah. All right.
• 59:16
  We're going to do some kind of whip around here on our major
• 59:21
  leagues and tournaments going on right now.
• 59:24
  We'll start with the NWSL. We talked a little bit about
• 59:28
  kind of the headlines of the results.
• 59:30
  I just like can't get over every time I'm looking at socials, the
• 59:36
  attendance records. So we had like 129,000 people
• 59:41
  out that first weekend, which was an average of 16,000 fans
• 59:45
  per game. This past weekend, Portland
• 59:49
  Sorens had a home opener record and they they usually have a lot
• 59:54
  of people there. They had 21,000 people there for
• 59:57
  their home opener. The Gotham defending champions
• 1:00:01
  Gotham FC had 10,796, almost 10,800 people at their home
• 1:00:07
  opener, also a record. The Houston Dash had a record
• 1:00:11
  for their home opener of 10,200 people.
• 1:00:14
  And so I think it's. It's so interesting and the go
• 1:00:21
  back to the the flywheel effect of like the interest just
• 1:00:25
  genuinely in women's sports because we're also seeing
• 1:00:28
  attendance records in the PWHL so far.
• 1:00:32
  Average attendance in the first two weeks of March is over 50%
• 1:00:37
  greater than it was this time last year, which is crazy.
• 1:00:42
  That's a lot of a lot more people going to these games and
• 1:00:46
  we're not even done with March. We have a full slate of games on
• 1:00:49
  Wednesday this week on episode release day and then we have the
• 1:00:53
  much talked about Denver Summit home opener on Saturday this
• 1:00:58
  week where they're going to have over 50.
• 1:01:00
  They're going to set in a new attendance record.
• 1:01:01
  So I, I love seeing it. I love seeing people wanting to
• 1:01:07
  go watch this skill and this talent live.
• 1:01:12
  Speaking from experience of just like going to women's sporting
• 1:01:15
  events like it is so fun. The atmosphere is so great.
• 1:01:20
  It's it's so like happy, yes. Yes, it is.
• 1:01:24
  It's family friendly, like you can bring your kids and like not
• 1:01:28
  really be worried they're gonna have like a beer spilled on
• 1:01:29
  their head. The men's sports always feel a
• 1:01:31
  little bit more like serious environments.
• 1:01:34
  Yeah, intense. And these are intense, but like
• 1:01:37
  in a, in a, in a different. Way that's not.
• 1:01:40
  Good or bad, but like it's just different.
• 1:01:42
  Yeah, I think one one of my questions looking ahead here and
• 1:01:46
  then I'll pass to you is like, are we going to see more of
• 1:01:51
  these venue moves? So we've got Gotham announced
• 1:01:53
  the game at City Park, the Mets home stadium in New York City.
• 1:01:58
  Like I just could see Bass Bay FC last year played a game in a
• 1:02:03
  40,000 capacity stadium against the Spirit.
• 1:02:05
  Like you're going to talk about some potential transfers coming
• 1:02:10
  over and I feel like there could be some venue moves this.
• 1:02:15
  Season, Yeah, I mean, I think if you can, if you can market it
• 1:02:19
  right and hype it up, especially if you have some major like US
• 1:02:23
  women's national team players. So I mean yeah, I could totally
• 1:02:29
  see that, especially if you have that match up like you said.
• 1:02:33
  We, what I wanted to talk about is we talked earlier this year
• 1:02:38
  about before the whole Rodman or the Robin or during the Robin
• 1:02:43
  rule saga, all of that we were talking about you could have
• 1:02:46
  potential player drain to European.
• 1:02:49
  Yeah, we were like worried about.
• 1:02:51
  It yeah, we were, we were super worried about it.
• 1:02:53
  And then Lindsay Heaps came back to Denver.
• 1:02:58
  We just had Cat Mercario come back to San Diego from Chelsea.
• 1:03:03
  Chelsea, and it's all but certain.
• 1:03:07
  It's very rumored right now, but pretty certain that Sam Kerr is
• 1:03:10
  going to leave Chelsea at the end of her contract this year
• 1:03:13
  and come back to the end of it and come to the end of the NWSL.
• 1:03:16
  Yeah, I mean, she's her wife is American.
• 1:03:20
  They just had a baby. Sam Kerr, for those who don't
• 1:03:24
  know, is Australian super striker.
• 1:03:27
  She's like one of the best to ever lace up the boots.
• 1:03:30
  She's been at Chelsea for a while now.
• 1:03:33
  She was out with injury for an extended peerage to her ACL and
• 1:03:38
  has really only just gotten kind of back into form.
• 1:03:41
  But she would be a massive draw for the end of the USL.
• 1:03:46
  Like I don't there are very few other non American National team
• 1:03:54
  players that would draw as much as her.
• 1:03:56
  There's probably some Spanish players like she's it, yeah.
• 1:04:02
  Yeah. I mean, that was, I mean that
• 1:04:04
  was my main point here too. Is that latching on to your
• 1:04:08
  attendance thing? We could see, we could see more.
• 1:04:11
  We also, I think it's so funny how we were so worried about the
• 1:04:14
  flare drain and that we're kind of seeing them them come back
• 1:04:17
  here. Yeah, and it is it also I do
• 1:04:20
  wonder like what is going on over at Chelsea because.
• 1:04:24
  You had there's one other player too, from Chelsea.
• 1:04:27
  Millie Bright from English as. Well.
• 1:04:30
  Yeah, And come over to the NWSLI think and, and it, Emma Hayes
• 1:04:34
  coached there before she signed on with the US women's national
• 1:04:38
  team. And they won like, I don't know,
• 1:04:39
  it was some absurd number of championships in a row.
• 1:04:42
  And then she left and they've still been good, but not as
• 1:04:46
  good. And so you kind of, I don't
• 1:04:49
  know, I just like wonder. Nay.
• 1:04:51
  Is there Naomi Girma, Alyssa Thompson?
• 1:04:56
  You know I. Wonder how some of those, like,
• 1:04:58
  ladies feel? Yeah, we just got here.
• 1:05:00
  I mean, their their thing too could be like their motivations
• 1:05:03
  could be like, I just wanted to try playing overseas and this
• 1:05:06
  was my first opportunity. And that's true.
• 1:05:09
  I think they also see it as like they can do a Lindsay right and
• 1:05:12
  like a heaps and play over there for a few years.
• 1:05:15
  Contract ends. I'm.
• 1:05:17
  Back and who knows where this league is going to be, right?
• 1:05:21
  We talked about renegotiating CBA.
• 1:05:23
  Theirs is up in 20, 2020, 30 I think, yeah.
• 1:05:28
  It'd be a good deal for them. All right, let's move on PWHL.
• 1:05:34
  All right, it was announced this week now that there is going to
• 1:05:39
  be a national broadcast in the PWHL of the playoffs.
• 1:05:44
  Amazing. It's awesome.
• 1:05:46
  We just announced last week that there was the first ever
• 1:05:50
  national broadcast just of a game, which is happening on
• 1:05:53
  Saturday, this Saturday. But now they're going to do all
• 1:05:57
  the playoffs. It's still with Script Sports.
• 1:05:59
  I assume it's going to be on Ion just like the other one would
• 1:06:02
  be. But there was an interesting
• 1:06:05
  study that was paired with this announcement that I want to talk
• 1:06:09
  a little bit about. So the Bank of America Institute
• 1:06:11
  Consumer Report indicated that women's sports viewership just
• 1:06:17
  in general has tripled since 2020.
• 1:06:20
  So in five years roughly, I assume they're not really
• 1:06:23
  including 2026, it's tripled. That is significant, right?
• 1:06:28
  They project 250% growth by 20-30 of these leagues.
• 1:06:36
  So not in viewership, but like of the leagues themselves and
• 1:06:39
  women's sports fans discretionary spend they found
• 1:06:43
  in this report is actually higher than men's sports fans
• 1:06:46
  discretionary spend. And so that's what's that's
• 1:06:48
  what's contributing to that potential growth.
• 1:06:51
  And I think like this was kind of a generic, you know, looking
• 1:06:56
  across all women's sports, but I think these league owners, the
• 1:07:02
  broadcast folks, the the brands that want to do sponsorship
• 1:07:06
  deals, like they are all sitting here being like, this is a
• 1:07:09
  honeypot. Like 100%.
• 1:07:11
  Waiting to just explode basically.
• 1:07:15
  And so we I just want to say like we called it when we did
• 1:07:20
  our first overview of the PWHL, we were like, we need a national
• 1:07:24
  broadcast for this league. And it's really interesting to
• 1:07:28
  see on the backs of the Olympic gold for the hockey team.
• 1:07:33
  And then, you know, just this kind of like step by step
• 1:07:37
  compression of I, I would not be surprised if by the end of the
• 1:07:44
  season we are announcing some sort of national podcast
• 1:07:47
  sponsorship for the PWHL. I'm I'm kind of wondering if the
• 1:07:52
  last day of the Olympics that a bunch of TV execs from various
• 1:07:56
  networks were felt kind of flat footed like, Oh my God, why are
• 1:07:58
  we? Why are we not doing this?
• 1:08:00
  We need to be. I'm so sorry, but it's a bunch
• 1:08:04
  of men. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:08:06
  Oh my gosh, if only we would have thought.
• 1:08:08
  Only we've been yelling it for years.
• 1:08:13
  So that's my that's my my storyline.
• 1:08:15
  I know you're going to talk a little bit more about the
• 1:08:17
  competition. We're.
• 1:08:17
  Going to talk a little bit about the standings here.
• 1:08:19
  We have a nearly three-way tie at the very top.
• 1:08:23
  It's tight we've. Got Frost, Boston and Montreal
• 1:08:27
  4242 and 40 points respectively in the top spot.
• 1:08:32
  I think the next one there is like 343030. 5. .6.
• 1:08:41
  Something like that. There's a, there's a gap,
• 1:08:43
  there's a good gap. And I thought the the
• 1:08:45
  interesting stat line here is the most interesting stat line
• 1:08:49
  was the goals for. So Minnesota has 67 goals for.
• 1:08:54
  It's a lot of goals. Boston has 49 and Montreal has
• 1:08:57
  53. So Minnesota is a powerhouse
• 1:09:01
  offensively. They do have a slightly higher
• 1:09:03
  goals against, but they have that higher offensive output
• 1:09:07
  here that is that is just propelling them up and above.
• 1:09:13
  So it's actually going to be a really interesting storyline to
• 1:09:15
  watch. Who comes out on top.
• 1:09:18
  Ken, Minnesota, I think we had a stat the last two years.
• 1:09:23
  They were actually near the bottom of the playoff rankings
• 1:09:26
  going in and then go in and win it all.
• 1:09:29
  Can they? Can they finally cement
• 1:09:31
  themselves at the top and then go in and win it all And like
• 1:09:34
  say we are the best team here, like by far?
• 1:09:37
  Yeah, I don't, I don't know. I mean, I think right now they
• 1:09:41
  look like the best team. Yeah, I think they've got some
• 1:09:44
  gaps they need to shore up. But like I've been saying this
• 1:09:46
  for the last couple weeks, it's kind of like if Grace Sumwinkel
• 1:09:50
  or Taylor Heisey get the puck. Yeah, you are like there's like
• 1:09:54
  a 75% chance that we're scoring a goal basically.
• 1:09:58
  I think they've got they've also got the the goaltending tandem,
• 1:10:02
  like they don't have a true one in the net.
• 1:10:05
  They kind of switch back and forth between Hemsley and Rooney
• 1:10:08
  and that's kind of an interesting dynamic.
• 1:10:11
  You never get a goaltender who's like they're at kind of the same
• 1:10:15
  level. But defensively I do wonder with
• 1:10:20
  as we head towards playoffs, right?
• 1:10:22
  I know our power, our penalty kill has been, yeah, atrocious,
• 1:10:25
  yeah. But we'll see what we can do
• 1:10:28
  there. And we have big.
• 1:10:29
  I mean, we play, we'll play all like.
• 1:10:32
  All the basically. Yeah, before the end of the
• 1:10:34
  season, but I think we play Montreal a couple times, Yeah,
• 1:10:38
  before seasons out. I think we're the game we're
• 1:10:41
  going to. I think we're seeing them play
• 1:10:42
  Boston. Oh yeah, that'll be a good one.
• 1:10:44
  A couple weeks, so the. The four don't don't turn away
• 1:10:47
  from the 4-5 and six, though. Those those, those teams are
• 1:10:50
  just going to be scrappy to get into that four spot.
• 1:10:53
  Ottawa, New York and Toronto, I think, yeah, is right in there.
• 1:11:00
  And yeah, because it's the two expansion teams are at the
• 1:11:03
  bottom, but like that is just like they're leapfrogging each
• 1:11:07
  other back and forth. And it, it's so fun because
• 1:11:11
  we've talked about the different rules, but like the whole season
• 1:11:14
  has to be competitive. Like even once you're
• 1:11:16
  mathematically eliminated or mathematically clinched, like
• 1:11:19
  you, you, you have incentive to keep competing.
• 1:11:22
  So it's going to be, it's going to be fun to bring it home.
• 1:11:26
  That does it for the PW Show. We have one more here.
• 1:11:30
  NCAA women's basketball. Obviously we are deep in it
• 1:11:34
  right now. All right, without knowing
• 1:11:37
  exactly how games finished up today, I did see UConn won
• 1:11:41
  behind easy Fudds 34 points wrapping up her career there in
• 1:11:46
  Storrs, Connecticut in fine fashion.
• 1:11:49
  I've got my eyes on the Duke Blue Devils.
• 1:11:53
  And the reason for that is head coach Carol Lawson.
• 1:11:57
  You may also know her as the head coach of the United States
• 1:12:00
  women's basketball team. We just kind of covered the last
• 1:12:03
  few weeks. But this woman knows how to drop
• 1:12:06
  a line. OK.
• 1:12:08
  And you want to talk about needing more women's coaches out
• 1:12:12
  there? Cara Lawson should write the
• 1:12:15
  book, all right? Because she just is so quotable.
• 1:12:18
  So I have a couple quotes just like, these got me fired up.
• 1:12:21
  And I was like, damn. You're making this.
• 1:12:22
  You're making it easy for 1/4 of the week.
• 1:12:24
  If I was, if I was playing on her team, I would just like I
• 1:12:27
  would. Run through a wall.
• 1:12:28
  Yes, cinder block wall, like I'm taking it out.
• 1:12:32
  So she has been quoted as saying we don't get to control the
• 1:12:39
  length of our adversity. You get to control who you are
• 1:12:44
  in it. Oh, oh, I'm going.
• 1:12:49
  To need one of these little quote calendars on my desk at.
• 1:12:52
  Work, you can just get a care lots.
• 1:12:53
  You don't even need anything else.
• 1:12:56
  And then this is one of my all time favorites.
• 1:12:59
  We use this one with the soccer team in the fall.
• 1:13:01
  So this little sidebar, like one of my jobs on the high school
• 1:13:05
  soccer team is to provide a quote of the game.
• 1:13:07
  And so I just have this big repository of quotes from female
• 1:13:11
  athletes, female coaches, things like that.
• 1:13:13
  And there is this video of her of care Lawson that went viral.
• 1:13:17
  I think it was last season where she said this and I'm going to
• 1:13:22
  read this. We all wait in life for things
• 1:13:26
  to get easier. It will never get easier.
• 1:13:30
  What happens is you handle hard better.
• 1:13:33
  So make yourself a person that handles hard well, drop that
• 1:13:40
  mic. So I've got I'm looking at Duke.
• 1:13:44
  They've they've got a tough sled.
• 1:13:46
  They got to go play LSU, but Kara kind of brings this like
• 1:13:52
  this like controlled intensity, whereas like you go on the other
• 1:13:57
  side of that match up to Kim Mulkey and that can be like a
• 1:14:01
  less controlled intensity. And you now don't have that like
• 1:14:05
  homecourt advantage that they were rocking in the first couple
• 1:14:08
  of rounds. Both of those teams, to be
• 1:14:09
  clear, they they were kind of they were playing at home.
• 1:14:12
  And so I do I wonder, right? I wonder if you can kind of get
• 1:14:16
  that team clicking at the right time.
• 1:14:19
  One other thing I do want to call out, you know, that overall
• 1:14:23
  bracket where Duke is, is tough. Minnesota's also in that
• 1:14:26
  bracket. You got to play whoever's
• 1:14:28
  winning against, you know, between UCLA and Oklahoma State
• 1:14:31
  right now. I'll, I'll be keeping my eye on
• 1:14:33
  that Sacramento 2 bracket. But there also was a viral clip
• 1:14:38
  over the weekend of Maryland head coach Brenda Freeze.
• 1:14:42
  She's a former Gophers head coach from way back from way
• 1:14:45
  back when. And she like got all up in the
• 1:14:49
  face of one of her players. And initially, like, you're kind
• 1:14:51
  of like, what's going on there. But those who can lip read
• 1:14:56
  apparently have have discerned what she said.
• 1:15:00
  And she's up in this player's face.
• 1:15:02
  And she says, I need you to lock in, stop being distracted.
• 1:15:06
  I believe in you. But you've got to want this
• 1:15:10
  moment. This isn't my story, All right?
• 1:15:14
  And I think what's interesting about that is like, you see the
• 1:15:18
  interaction and it goes back to kind of, we're talking about
• 1:15:22
  Emma Hayes, but like, understanding your players.
• 1:15:25
  Yeah, that is a deep understanding of knowing what
• 1:15:28
  that player will respond to in that moment.
• 1:15:31
  You don't get to do that without a relationship with that.
• 1:15:34
  No, not, No, you do not. It doesn't go well.
• 1:15:37
  No, right. And so I've seen some good kind
• 1:15:41
  of analysis on this, but like what what I think about when I'm
• 1:15:45
  coaching is like AI have to understand what that player
• 1:15:48
  needs. And I also have to understand
• 1:15:50
  the moment, right? That player in that game was
• 1:15:53
  probably spiraling. She's thinking about all the
• 1:15:55
  things she's doing wrong. You don't need to tell her that
• 1:15:58
  she's doing shit wrong. She knows what you need to do is
• 1:16:02
  you need to tell her that she can do it and that you know she
• 1:16:05
  can do it, but you can't do it for her, right?
• 1:16:09
  And so I love that moment. I love that like deep
• 1:16:12
  understanding of a player and how to communicate effectively
• 1:16:17
  in a really high pressure situation.
• 1:16:19
  I mean, I'm sure as a coach you've had players that are
• 1:16:21
  like, when I mess up, I need you to come out and tell me to like
• 1:16:25
  chill. Or you've had players that are
• 1:16:27
  like, if I'm dogging it, I need you to just cuss me out and get
• 1:16:31
  me get up in. My face.
• 1:16:32
  Yeah, Exactly, exactly. Yeah, you've got, you got to
• 1:16:35
  learn that, right? You got to learn like, OK, I got
• 1:16:38
  to give them 5 minutes to get their water bottle.
• 1:16:40
  They go sit at the end of the bench or I'm pulling them aside
• 1:16:44
  and I'm right, I'm right up in there, right.
• 1:16:47
  So I love seeing it. Great examples of some pretty
• 1:16:51
  good coaches. I think what I wanted to talk
• 1:16:54
  about is we have this potential. I believe it would be an Elite 8
• 1:16:58
  match up between Vanderbilt, yes, and UConn.
• 1:17:04
  Yes. So what we have here is we have
• 1:17:06
  a couple of things. We have the leading scorer in
• 1:17:08
  the league, Michaela Blakes, 27.1 points per game.
• 1:17:12
  Yep, going up against. She's a sophomore, yeah.
• 1:17:16
  AZ Fudd Sarah Strong on that UConn team.
• 1:17:20
  UConn coached by Gino Auriemma. Yep, used to have an assistant
• 1:17:24
  coach. Let me get the name right here,
• 1:17:27
  Shay Ralph for Vanderbilt. So you have like this really
• 1:17:32
  cool game that could happen if those teams both make it to the
• 1:17:36
  Elite 8 And the actual question, I didn't get time to look this
• 1:17:41
  up. When do they do the voting for
• 1:17:43
  the Naismith trophies? Because is that I know it's
• 1:17:46
  presented right around the final four.
• 1:17:48
  I don't know if the voting's done yet.
• 1:17:50
  Could this push either Michaela Blakes towards winning that
• 1:17:54
  trophy or an AZ FUD or Sarah Strong?
• 1:17:59
  I I don't know. That's a good question.
• 1:18:01
  I don't know what the timing of the actual vote would be, but
• 1:18:03
  yeah, the award is handed out at the final four like before those
• 1:18:08
  games are played. So yeah, that would be.
• 1:18:11
  I mean, Michaela Blake's is unbelievable.
• 1:18:13
  And and like I said, she's only a sophomore.
• 1:18:16
  She's really good both sides of the ball.
• 1:18:18
  She's really good at all three levels scoring on the on the
• 1:18:22
  court. I think what I wonder with that
• 1:18:24
  team and we haven't watched him enough.
• 1:18:26
  We. Watched a little bit of them.
• 1:18:27
  Today they got to go up against Hannah Hidalgo and Notre Dame,
• 1:18:31
  who's the 3rd leading scorer in the country right now, who also
• 1:18:35
  has a great like fills the stat sheet.
• 1:18:38
  And so they've got to get through that test.
• 1:18:41
  I do wonder what Blake's supporting cast looks like,
• 1:18:45
  right? Because on Yukon you've got
• 1:18:48
  Arizona, you've got Sarah Strong, but you've got Ashland
• 1:18:51
  shade, you've got KK Arnold. Like you've got a crew of
• 1:18:54
  experienced people who have won a national championship, like
• 1:18:58
  kind of know what it's like to be there.
• 1:19:01
  But I would, I would love to see it that.
• 1:19:04
  Would be a great match. Up.
• 1:19:05
  I would love to see it. So all right, what else should
• 1:19:09
  we be watching? Well, let's talk about what to
• 1:19:11
  watch. We've talked about it already.
• 1:19:14
  We have the WNFC football opening this weekend on
• 1:19:18
  Saturday. Games start.
• 1:19:20
  I believe it, really. Elite Spartans, do we expect to
• 1:19:23
  shut out? There's going to be I wonder
• 1:19:26
  what the over under is on most of these games with them.
• 1:19:30
  So it starts at 3:00 PM Central going all Saturday night.
• 1:19:34
  Oh, all right. The Texas Elite Spartans play at
• 1:19:36
  7:00 PM Central against the Mississippi Panthers.
• 1:19:39
  So you can watch them you. Can watch them.
• 1:19:41
  The other kind of big game I called out here is that new team
• 1:19:43
  Golden State plays San Diego at 6:00 PM.
• 1:19:47
  Central. And again on Victory Plus, all
• 1:19:52
  right, and WSL, we have so many. A lot.
• 1:19:57
  OK, let me make sure I get this right.
• 1:19:58
  I believe Wednesday there's five games.
• 1:20:01
  There's one on Friday. 6 on Saturday and then one on Sunday.
• 1:20:05
  So nearly. Just watch all the soccer.
• 1:20:08
  Obviously our number one game is the Denver Summit home opener.
• 1:20:12
  50,000 people or more. Let's let's see what they get.
• 1:20:16
  Yeah, I'm going to be curious to watch that one.
• 1:20:20
  But yeah, I was surprised the like middle of the week slate
• 1:20:23
  here. You've got like, I think it's
• 1:20:24
  like 2 games starting at six, two games starting at 7, and the
• 1:20:27
  game starting at 8:00 PM Central time here, so.
• 1:20:31
  No shortage. The that Denver Summit game is
• 1:20:35
  versus the Washington Spirit 1:00 PM Central on CBS and
• 1:20:40
  Paramount Plus. That's epic.
• 1:20:42
  It's going to be great. Moving on to PWHL, Game of the
• 1:20:47
  Week, National game, Game of the Week, Montreal versus national
• 1:20:51
  broadcast. Takeover tour game, they're
• 1:20:54
  going to be in Detroit. We talked about Detroit as a
• 1:20:56
  potential new team market. I think the fans have to show.
• 1:21:01
  Up. Yeah, they do.
• 1:21:02
  They really do they they do. This is also Montreal trying to
• 1:21:06
  get into that top spot, New York trying to see if they can stay
• 1:21:09
  alive. And into that, yeah, yeah.
• 1:21:12
  Go sirens. I'm cheering for the sirens the
• 1:21:14
  whole way and that will be on Ion.
• 1:21:18
  All right. All right.
• 1:21:21
  We have NCAA basketball, which we are just talking about.
• 1:21:24
  Sweet 16 on Friday and Saturday, Elite 8 on Sunday and Monday,
• 1:21:29
  current games, UConn versus UNC, Notre Dame versus Vanderbilt.
• 1:21:36
  I'm assuming Vanderbilt won that tonight.
• 1:21:39
  Did we see them win that? That's true.
• 1:21:41
  We didn't see them win that, but if.
• 1:21:43
  We'll correct it on socials if we're wrong.
• 1:21:46
  We're making a lot of. Assumptions, Minnesota versus
• 1:21:48
  winner of UCLA or Oklahoma State, kind of assume a UCLA
• 1:21:53
  victory on that I'm assuming, but Duke versus LSU, Oklahoma
• 1:21:58
  versus the winner of USC, South Carolina, which was happening
• 1:22:02
  right now, TCU versus Virginia, Texas versus Kentucky and
• 1:22:07
  Louisville versus Michigan. Oh, I think if you pick one, you
• 1:22:11
  got to pick that Duke LSU game. That game is going to be tough.
• 1:22:16
  That'll be a good one. And that's all I had for this
• 1:22:19
  week. I want to watch.
• 1:22:20
  One other I'll just throw out there is that the college
• 1:22:24
  gymnastics regionals are starting up this weekend, so you
• 1:22:29
  can go find those out. ESPN Plus on the app.
• 1:22:33
  And this is now the the national tournament.
• 1:22:35
  So you're blending all the different conferences together.
• 1:22:38
  And I know the Gophers qualified.
• 1:22:40
  They were the third best team in the Big 10.
• 1:22:44
  And then obviously all the other teams we've talked about so.
• 1:22:47
  All right, it's good winners and losers.
• 1:22:50
  Oh man, I mean, winners have got to be like a WNBA fans.
• 1:22:58
  Maybe I keep I'm hesitant with the free agency stuff, but
• 1:23:02
  getting the CBA done, knowing the season's still on track, I
• 1:23:06
  think that's a huge win for everyone involved.
• 1:23:08
  I feel like this actually worked out probably the best it could
• 1:23:11
  have. It's it sucks that like it had
• 1:23:15
  to go on the way that it did and sort of create some of that that
• 1:23:21
  doubt, but I think that's a huge win for a lot of different
• 1:23:28
  parties. Yeah, I mean, my thing here was
• 1:23:30
  current and future players, basically.
• 1:23:32
  Yeah, that's a great point. They're the winners here.
• 1:23:34
  I mean if you're an easy fudd looking hat that's the landscape
• 1:23:39
  right now, you'd be like, this is perfect.
• 1:23:40
  That's right guard from TCU, Olivia Miles, their star guard.
• 1:23:45
  She she opted to take a fifth year and trans go TCU.
• 1:23:49
  She was at Notre Dame last year and played four years there.
• 1:23:53
  Opted to take a fifth year at TCU and they were husking her in
• 1:23:57
  a press conference after their like nail biter of a win the
• 1:23:59
  other night. She's like, feels pretty smart
• 1:24:02
  right now. Yeah, it.
• 1:24:03
  Felt like a good idea. Yeah.
• 1:24:04
  Now. Now it looks great.
• 1:24:05
  So it's awesome, right losers? And this is, this is a harder 1.
• 1:24:11
  I don't have the league to fill. Yeah, Yeah, you don't.
• 1:24:14
  This week, honestly, I'm going to say my loser is me for not
• 1:24:25
  realizing that the Women's National Football Conference has
• 1:24:28
  been around for so long. That feels like a major miss,
• 1:24:31
  being a football lover. I didn't either.
• 1:24:33
  And a lover of women's sports. That took me by surprise.
• 1:24:36
  So we'll have to be tuning into that for sure.
• 1:24:39
  I can't. I mean, Iowa got like really
• 1:24:44
  upset bad in the NCAA tournament as a two seed.
• 1:24:48
  They lost to Virginia. But the flip side of that is
• 1:24:52
  that Virginia now is going back to the Sweet 16 for the first
• 1:24:55
  time since like 2000. And I was reading about how
• 1:24:59
  Alexis Ohanian who is otherwise known as Serena Williams
• 1:25:04
  husband, right? Also known as Reddit founder.
• 1:25:07
  Yeah, but Serena Williams, husband, he went to UVA and he
• 1:25:11
  made a huge donation a few years back saying he wanted to
• 1:25:15
  completely transform their landscape.
• 1:25:17
  And so it's really cool. It is amazing to see what
• 1:25:21
  happens when you invest in women.
• 1:25:24
  Absolutely. So that turned a loss into a
• 1:25:27
  win. There we go.
• 1:25:29
  Yeah, I would say my loser is I have seen so many comments on
• 1:25:34
  social media and I probably should not read social media.
• 1:25:37
  Oh no, I know. What you're saying?
• 1:25:39
  No, I don't know if you do actually, there have been a lot
• 1:25:42
  of dudes on social media saying the refrain, nobody watches
• 1:25:48
  women's sports. And I don't know how you look at
• 1:25:51
  like the 129,000 that opening weekend of NWSL Denver selling
• 1:25:56
  50,000 tickets over $1 billion is going to be spent on WNBA
• 1:26:03
  salaries over the next seven years.
• 1:26:06
  And that report that you that you called out saying that.
• 1:26:10
  Bank of America. Viewership has tripled since
• 1:26:13
  2020. How you can look at that and see
• 1:26:17
  these crowds and see all the spending that's going on in
• 1:26:22
  women's sports. I'm going to assume that a lot
• 1:26:26
  of these guys put on a pedestal these business owners that they
• 1:26:31
  love so much. And these business owners are
• 1:26:33
  the people who are putting money into women's sports.
• 1:26:35
  And it's it's still the same refrain.
• 1:26:37
  Nobody watches women's sports. I don't know how you can see all
• 1:26:40
  this in this day and age and say that nobody watches women's
• 1:26:43
  sports. And they are my losers.
• 1:26:46
  They are losers. And here's the thing, Chad of
• 1:26:50
  the world, there haven't been as many opportunities or access to
• 1:26:58
  watch women's sports in the past.
• 1:27:01
  And so if you are trying to compare, which I'm sure you are
• 1:27:05
  to the accessibility that men's sports has enjoyed for years,
• 1:27:11
  you are not comparing apples to apples.
• 1:27:15
  There are only now just the amount of funding going into
• 1:27:18
  women's sports that has been going into men's sports 10X for
• 1:27:24
  so many more years. And it has been proven time and
• 1:27:27
  again that when you look at Alexis Ohanian, you put money
• 1:27:32
  towards women's programs. It is not about their ability to
• 1:27:36
  perform, it is about their access and their opportunity and
• 1:27:39
  their support that they get financially right to compete,
• 1:27:45
  Period, end of story. Yeah, that was my other point.
• 1:27:48
  As I was thinking about this is like we don't like we go into
• 1:27:52
  societal, societal, political, all that stuff for the last like
• 1:27:56
  hundreds of years, thousands of years of of why.
• 1:28:00
  But just look at what look at what's happening right now.
• 1:28:02
  Like you can't say that nobody is watching this stuff.
• 1:28:05
  Yeah, I mean, you might not be watching it.
• 1:28:08
  Yeah, that doesn't mean, which is fine.
• 1:28:10
  Everybody's not watching it. You don't have to watch it,
• 1:28:12
  right? But you can't deny facts, and I
• 1:28:14
  would recommend you watch it. Like in a lot of cases, I've
• 1:28:18
  seen plenty of men talk about how the basketball and the W is
• 1:28:21
  actually how basketball is meant to be played.
• 1:28:24
  And I know that we get a lot of hate for that.
• 1:28:26
  But like, I think that there's a purity to the game on the
• 1:28:31
  women's side still. We talk about on women's soccer,
• 1:28:35
  they are not collapsing to the ground on some kind of phantom
• 1:28:40
  touch, right? And so I, I think it's a bummer,
• 1:28:44
  right? But like, that's also the day
• 1:28:46
  and age we live in where people are just going to have dumb
• 1:28:50
  opinions and think they can voice them.
• 1:28:52
  So you're wrong. Everyone watches women's sports
• 1:28:57
  and we're going to watch more this week and we hope you do
• 1:29:00
  too. Yeah.
• 1:29:00
  All right. That's it for now.
• 1:29:03
  Wrap it out. Yeah.
• 1:29:05
  All right. Visit us on socials RTG under
• 1:29:08
  Score Pod on Threads and Instagram, YouTube.
• 1:29:12
  And just keep in mind next week's episode is going to be a
• 1:29:15
  little bit more of a content storyline right around the
• 1:29:21
  history of women's sports. So you won't get any updates
• 1:29:24
  from us on the leagues, but join us the following week for deep
• 1:29:29
  dive back into. We'll be back into it then.
• 1:29:30
  All the things. All right, till next time,
• 1:29:33
  thanks for being here. Bye.