- Between Courts
- Posts
- The New Women's Post Season Tournament Is In Shambles
The New Women's Post Season Tournament Is In Shambles
NCAA launches a new women's post season tournament, WBIT
Scottie Tims
March 22, 2024
Happy March Madness! The best time of the year has officially kicked off and I couldn’t be happier.
Every year I quit my job the day before March Madness so I can be unbothered watching a week straight of games, and it’s the best time of the year for me.
Today we’re talking about the new post-season women’s basketball tournament, WBIT. This is the new tournament the NCAA has created in order to show their equitable contributions, but it’s already a dumpster fire.
Let’s get into it! 👇️
💡 LAST CALL
Final seconds to make your predictions for the NCAAW March Madness tournament on the first edition Between Courts Bracket!
Not your mama’s bracket
5 questions, 1 winner selected for each round!
We’ll give you a sneak peak of one of our very tough questions…
TODAY’S STORY
💥THE NCAA’S EQUITY EFFORTS FLOP AGAIN
WHAT IS WBIT?
Short for Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT)
The WBIT is the new kid on the block. It’s the NCAA's latest addition to women's basketball, providing a 32-team postseason invitation tournament that launched this year.
The NCAA does not own the rights to the original JV version of March Madness, called the WNIT, so they created their own which is now the WBIT.
Simply put, the NCAA woke tf up after reading the 2021 Gender Equity Report, aiming for fairness and more opportunities for women's teams.
DOES WBIT SOUND FAMILIAR?
If WBIT looks or sounds familiar, you’re onto something.
Similar to the men’s NIT, women have had the WNIT since 1969. However, unlike the NIT, the WNIT isn’t owned by the NCAA and isn’t even acknowledged by them, which undermines its competitiveness.
Let's face it, the NCAA hasn't exactly been giving women's basketball the attention it deserves. It's been more like an overlooked benchwarmer. So, until the Varsity team (W March Madness) gets its spotlight, let’s hold off on the WNIT hype in the name of equality.
While the NCAA may paint the WBIT as an equitable decision, given that the NIT for men is NCAA-owned, it seems more like a way for them to pocket additional profits from women’s basketball, as the teams aren’t seeing any financial benefits from this setup and we’re seeing the viewership and revenue increase around 30% year over year.
THIS IS THE BEST PART
So all of this sounds great and fair and womanly right?
Well, that was until a couple of days ago
Miami was the #1 seed in the tournament, and just moments before play, they backed out and were replaced by an unranked team.
The announcement from Draft Kings honestly shares the information in the best way possible.
I haven’t fact checked, but whoever typed out this update must have had money on the line, because the emotion is dripping through.
“In an inauspicious start to the first-ever WBIT, the tournament has been delegitimized before it even began. The WBIT initially listed Miami as a No. 1 seed, but the Hurricanes decided to opt out of the tournament.
Rather than move things around to readjust following Miami’s decision, the WBIT simply replaced Miami’s No. 1 seed with James Madison — a team that had not been invited to the tournament in any capacity before Miami dropped out. JMU has skyrocketed from no invitation to a No. 1 seed, making a complete farce of the tournament’s layout.”
Beautifully said, what a complete farce!
“Farce”
What’s the farce?
Well, the committee is made up of five former Division I women’s basketball coaches and three current/former Division I athletic administrators.
I think they should add in assistant coaches or director of business operations coaches. They would have had a backup plan ready to go.
Alright that’s all we’ve got for you today.
Follow us on Twitter for some live reactions
Last year we got cancelled, this year we’re gonna try to be on our best behavior.
See you next week 👋
Reply