{"id":700281,"date":"2026-04-05T21:53:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T21:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/700281\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T21:53:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T21:53:13","slug":"ucla-womens-basketball-national-title-comes-amid-ncaa-parity-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/700281\/","title":{"rendered":"UCLA Women’s Basketball National Title Comes Amid NCAA Parity Concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tLast season, in the run-up to his 12th national title, UConn coach Geno Auriemma warned that parity<\/a> was disappearing from women\u2019s college basketball. Twelve months later, a first-time winner lifted the NCAA tournament trophy.<\/p>\n

\n\tUCLA beat South Carolina 79-51 on Sunday afternoon in Phoenix, cracking a level dominated in recent years by just a handful of schools and coaches. The Bruins\u2019 win was the culmination of a decade-long build by UCLA and head coach Cori Close who have capitalized on this new era of chaos in college sports to create a potential new women\u2019s basketball power.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor one, the players. UCLA leaned heavily on a series of transfers\u2014four of the team\u2019s six highest scorers started their careers elsewhere\u2014including 6\u20197\u2033 star Lauren Betts, who had a 14 points and 11 rebounds in the title game. Close said earlier in the week that she would probably add another five transfers to the team next year.<\/p>\n

\n\tUCLA also rode the latest wave of conference realignment, leaving the collapsing Pac-12 for the financial comfort of the Big Ten. The school reported $19.9 million in media rights revenue in its final year in the Pac-12, while Big Ten teams each received about $60 million in similar distributions last season.\u00a0This is the Big Ten\u2019s first women\u2019s basketball title since 1999.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNow being in the Big Ten, I think resource-wise, exposure-wise, commitment-wise, I think they\u2019re leading the way nationally,\u201d Close told reporters before the Final Four. \u201cThere is not another conference I would rather be a part of from a women\u2019s basketball perspective. So I just am humbly thankful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat Big Ten money has helped UCLA start to balance what had been one of the largest athletics deficits<\/a> in the country. Bruins sports have operated at a consistent loss for most of the last decade, a deficit that hit $219.5 million last year, according to the Los Angeles Times<\/a>. That piled up amid mounting transfers from the university\u2019s main campus to help stem the losses.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tA women\u2019s basketball title, of course, won\u2019t dramatically change the economics for the school. But there is room to grow, particularly in ticket sales. UCLA reported about $313,000 in women\u2019s basketball ticket revenue in fiscal 2024, according to Sportico\u2019s college finance database. That ranked 34th among public FBS schools. For reference, the sport\u2019s traditional powers all rank near the top. Iowa was first at $3.26 million, followed by UConn at $3.25 million and South Carolina at $1.6 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tThose schools are among those that have put a near stranglehold on the top of the sport in recent years. Auriemma (UConn), Dawn Staley (South Carolina) and Kim Mulkey (LSU, Baylor) have coached 13 of the last 16 national titles. <\/p>\n

\n\tClose has also become a prominent change agent in modern women\u2019s college basketball. She was among the loudest voices<\/a> in the sport pushing for more equality from the NCAA\u2014a campaign that ultimately led to a much larger TV deal and a new system that pats teams for their participation. Earlier this year, following a road win at Ohio State, she was outspoken about the lack of media coverage at a game between two ranked Big Ten teams.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re the only double-ranked game out today\u2014the only one in the country\u2014and we had no media day today. No media here,\u201d she told the only reporter that asked to speak with her after the game. \u201c[It\u2019s] disappointing, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tClose is in her 15th season at UCLA. The team made the NCAA tournament just once in her first four years, but has played in nine of the last 11, including the school\u2019s first Final Four appearance last season.<\/p>\n

\n\tUCLA\u2019s spending has increased heavily in that span. During the 2011-2012 season, Close\u2019s first in Los Angeles, UCLA spent just $2.5 million per year on women\u2019s basketball. That was the 62nd largest budget in the sport, according to data schools submit to the U.S. Department of Education. By the 2023-24 season, that had jumped to $7.8 million, the 15th highest budget in the country.<\/p>\n

\n\tClose\u2019s pay, however, has trailed those at the top of her profession. Staley, whose South Carolina team has won two of the last four national titles, made $4.25 million in base pay this year. Auriemma made about $3.5 million. Close\u2019s base salary, according to The State<\/a>, was $877,500 this season.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis is the second women\u2019s tournament under the NCAA\u2019s eight-year, $920 million<\/a> TV deal with ESPN<\/a>. It\u2019s also the second women\u2019s tournament in which teams are compensated for their participation. That system, known as \u201cunits,\u201d was added amid criticism over the governing body\u2019s uneven treatment of its men\u2019s and women\u2019s tournaments.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last season, in the run-up to his 12th national title, UConn coach Geno Auriemma warned that parity was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,217,130,7456,84489,231,772,1544,4252,4262],"class_list":{"0":"post-700281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-basketball","10":"tag-espn","11":"tag-march-madness","12":"tag-march-madness-2026","13":"tag-ncaa","14":"tag-ncaa-basketball","15":"tag-ncaab","16":"tag-south-carolina-gamecocks","17":"tag-ucla-bruins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116354325877070758","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}