Speaker 1: Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're headed
Speaker 1: to Austin to hang at the iHeart Podcast Hotel at
Speaker 1: south By Southwest. Yeehaw, howdy, Let's get roostered, Pardner that
Speaker 1: means drunk. It's Friday, March seventh, and on today's show,
Speaker 1: we'll be chatting with Atlantic ten Commissioner Bernadette mclade about
Speaker 1: leading by example, overcoming failure, navigating the nil era, and the.
Speaker 2: Secret to her longevity at the conference.
Speaker 1: Plus an NWSL Championship rematch, Unrivaled is stacking up semi finalists,
Speaker 1: and an update from Alexa Philippoo on the Diana Tarassi
Speaker 1: Rice Crispy Mystery. It's all coming up right after this
Speaker 1: welcome back. Here's what you need to know today in
Speaker 1: soccer news, We've got our first NWSL on field action
Speaker 1: since November. Tonight, the league's Challenge Cup kicks off at
Speaker 1: eight pm e Eastern, featuring a rematch of the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four championship between the victorious Orlando Pride and runner
Speaker 1: up Washington's Spirit.
Speaker 2: Will we get our first look at Barbara.
Speaker 1: Banda, Marta, Trinity Rodman, maybe even Croy Bethune. Time will
Speaker 1: tell how each side manages playing time. But no matter
Speaker 1: who we see, the thing that matters is NWSL Soccer
Speaker 1: is back. You can catch that contest streaming live on
Speaker 1: Prime Video. Oh and the four part docuseries for the
Speaker 1: Win NWSL that follows the twenty twenty four playoffs is
Speaker 1: now streaming on Prime Video as well.
Speaker 2: Go check it out more soccer.
Speaker 1: The prosecutor in the case of former Spanish Soccer Federation
Speaker 1: president Luis Rubialis is requesting a retrial, even though in
Speaker 1: February Rubialis was found guilty of sexual assault and find
Speaker 1: over ten thousand euros. Prosecutor Marta Dorontes believes a greater
Speaker 1: punishment should have been levied Rubialis for kissing Spanish women's
Speaker 1: national team player Jenny Hermoso on the lips during the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three World Cup award ceremony without her consent.
Speaker 1: Per Reuter's reporting, Contes is asking that another judge be
Speaker 1: assigned to the case, citing the fact that the guilty
Speaker 1: sexual assault ruling should have constituted a one year sentence,
Speaker 1: the penalty she requested, and arguing that evidence and many
Speaker 1: of her questions were not admitted. She also wrote in
Speaker 1: the appeal that the judge's conduct during the hearing compromised
Speaker 1: quote the appearance of impartiality end quote, and that the
Speaker 1: minimal fine and three thousand euros awarded to Hermoso or
Speaker 1: quote offensive to the victim and to the victims of
Speaker 1: sexual assault undoubtedly a bad precedent end quote. For his part,
Speaker 1: Rubialis has said he'll also appeal the ruling. To college hoops,
Speaker 1: Stanford fell to Clemson sixty three forty six in the
Speaker 1: first round of the ACC Tournament on Wednesday night, severely
Speaker 1: damaging their chances of making the NCAA Tournament. Stanford is
Speaker 1: sixteen and fourteen this season, and before that game, they
Speaker 1: were in bracketologist Charlie Crem's last four out. That means
Speaker 1: the Cardinal needed a strong showing in the ACC Tournament
Speaker 1: to prove it belonged in the sixty four team NCAA
Speaker 1: Tournament field. Now slightly that Stanford will miss the Big
Speaker 1: Dance for the first time since the nineteen eighty seven season.
Speaker 1: The program's thirty seven year streak is the second longest
Speaker 1: in women's college basketball, and it could end in the
Speaker 1: first season of Cardinal hoops since the retirement of the
Speaker 1: winningest basketball coach in Division one history. Tara Vanderveer, Tennessee
Speaker 1: has the longest existing streak with forty two straight tournament berths,
Speaker 1: and though the Balls last to Vanderbilt in the SEC
Speaker 1: Tournament yesterday, they're a pretty safe bet to make a
Speaker 1: forty third appearance this season.
Speaker 2: To Pro hoops.
Speaker 1: Unrivaled is entering its last regular season weekend of play.
Speaker 1: There are two games tonight, Phantom BC versus Lace's BC
Speaker 1: at seven Eastern, followed by Lunar Owls BC versus ROSEBC.
Speaker 1: Then there will be four more games split between Saturday
Speaker 1: and Monday. Once these last couple games wrap up, we'll
Speaker 1: know who all four semi final contenders are. Right now,
Speaker 1: the Lunar Owls have clinched the number one seed and
Speaker 1: Rose has clinched a spot in the playoffs, but not
Speaker 1: a seed. There's also PVF, PWHL and Love Action happening
Speaker 1: tonight and over the weekend too, so we'll to those
Speaker 1: league schedules in our show notes. And In tennis news,
Speaker 1: the Women's Tennis Association is introducing paid maternity leave. According
Speaker 1: to Thursday's announcement, more than three hundred WTA players are
Speaker 1: now eligible for paid leave twelve months for those who
Speaker 1: become pregnant and two months for players who become parents
Speaker 1: via partner pregnancy, surrogacy or adoption. The leave is financially
Speaker 1: supported through a program sponsored by the Public Investment Fund
Speaker 1: of Saudi Arabia, which will also provide grants for fertility treatments,
Speaker 1: including egg freezing and in vitro fertilization. The fund is
Speaker 1: retroacted to Jan one, but the WTA didn't reveal how
Speaker 1: much money is involved. It's good news, but a maternity
Speaker 1: leaf fund supported by Saudi Arabia. It's kind of like
Speaker 1: that meme slash click hole headline heartbreaking. The worst person
Speaker 1: you know just made a great point. All right, We
Speaker 1: got to take a quick break when we come back.
Speaker 1: Yesterday I caught up with A ten commissioner, Bernadette McGlade.
Speaker 1: She joined us from Richmond, Virginia, where the A ten
Speaker 1: Women's Basketball Conference tournament is currently in full swing. That
Speaker 1: conversation is coming up next. Joining us now, she's the
Speaker 1: Atlantic Ten commissioner and one of the few women leading
Speaker 1: a Division one athletic conference. She's the longest tenured commissioner
Speaker 1: at one league and served on the NCAA Women's Basketball
Speaker 1: Selection Committee, chairing it in nineteen ninety nine and two thousand.
Speaker 1: A former player herself, she still owns the all time
Speaker 1: rebounding record for men and women at UNC. It's Bernadette McGlade. Bernadette,
Speaker 1: thanks for joining us. Thank you, Sarah. It's great to
Speaker 1: be on your show. Appreciate the invite.
Speaker 2: I have to start with that rebounding record.
Speaker 1: Are we a Dennis Rodman type angles and elbows or
Speaker 1: were we just about long arms and size?
Speaker 2: What were we doing in there? I don't know.
Speaker 3: I think it was about long arms and size or
Speaker 3: something like that. I'm amazed that that record hasn't been unbroken,
Speaker 3: but a lot of fun me in my playing days
Speaker 3: at UNC in Chapel Hill.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's incredible.
Speaker 1: Your kind of longevity at a job in sports is rare.
Speaker 1: Seventeen years at the A ten.
Speaker 2: What's your secret.
Speaker 3: I don't know that there's a secret to it. I
Speaker 3: think I've been really fortunate and blessed. I've had really
Speaker 3: only three jobs. I was seventeen years at Georgia Tech
Speaker 3: and then I was another eleven years at the ACC,
Speaker 3: and I just am amazed as the time has flown
Speaker 3: I would say that the President's Council, who I report to,
Speaker 3: and our athletic directors in the Atlantic ten have been
Speaker 3: just fabulous, you know, very willing to take risk, and
Speaker 3: we've been able to really accomplish some unbelievable milestones in
Speaker 3: the last you know fifteen almost twenty years.
Speaker 2: You mentioned Georgia Tech.
Speaker 1: So shortly after you finished your playing career and finished
Speaker 1: up your courses for your master's degree, you were almost
Speaker 1: immediately offered a Division one head women's basketball coaching job
Speaker 1: at an ACC school, Georgia Tech. You were just twenty
Speaker 1: three years old. Why did you feel like you were
Speaker 1: ready to take on the job.
Speaker 3: Well, at twenty three, doesn't everybody feel like they're ready
Speaker 3: to take on the world. Yeah, I was, you know,
Speaker 3: I had finished my masters and I was just very
Speaker 3: focused on getting gained full employment. And there were a
Speaker 3: few folks at the time that said, you know, you're
Speaker 3: crazy if you take the job, but you're also crazy
Speaker 3: if you don't take the job when you have it offered.
Speaker 3: So you know, I took the leap and jumped in
Speaker 3: with both feet and was fortunate to work for an
Speaker 3: unbelievable boss, Hama Rice, who recently just passed away this
Speaker 3: past year, but just a fabulous name and an icon
Speaker 3: in intercollegiate athletics and had a great run at Georgia Tech.
Speaker 2: What's it like to grow up on a job like that?
Speaker 1: We've had some very young coaches on the show here
Speaker 1: that started coaching right after they graduated, so they feel
Speaker 1: like they're the same as the players, but have to
Speaker 1: immediately sort of establish I'm an adult. Now I'm different,
Speaker 1: I'm a coach. And then over time you are organically
Speaker 1: growing away from the players that you're working with and
Speaker 1: trying to stay relatable and understand them even as you
Speaker 1: get older.
Speaker 2: What's it like to be in that space and evolve
Speaker 2: and adjust?
Speaker 3: It is a union experience, so I have to admit there.
Speaker 3: I had one player on the team that was actually
Speaker 3: a year older than me when I took the job.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you a story that's even funnier. We only
Speaker 3: had a measly three thousand dollars to recruit, and I
Speaker 3: spent a big chunk of it to go up to
Speaker 3: New York. And I flew into the airport and went
Speaker 3: to the rental car and the woman said, oh, I'm sorry,
Speaker 3: miss We can't rent to the car. And I was like,
Speaker 3: why I have a reservation and she says, oh, she goes,
Speaker 3: you're not twenty five, and I was panicked. I'm in
Speaker 3: New York City with not able to get a rental car,
Speaker 3: and I'm thinking, I just spent like half of my
Speaker 3: recruiting budget and I can't get a rental car.
Speaker 2: So how'd you make it work?
Speaker 3: You know those guys that stand in the airport with
Speaker 3: a sign saying like.
Speaker 2: Do you need a ride?
Speaker 3: Do you need a ride? I grabbed one of them
Speaker 3: and I said, Hey, I have to get to this
Speaker 3: high school. So it went from it went from there.
Speaker 3: I wasn't going to lose the trip, trust me, when
Speaker 3: you're recruiting your own a mission. But it you know,
Speaker 3: I was, you know, still just recently having played, and
Speaker 3: so I would, you know, work out with my team
Speaker 3: and play with my team and run with my team.
Speaker 3: And I think a lot of that showing by example,
Speaker 3: Georgia Tech was a very young program in the early eighties,
Speaker 3: and I think that went a long way in terms
Speaker 3: of establishing a rapport with the student athletes. And I
Speaker 3: just went back to Georgia Tech. Mel Fordner did a
Speaker 3: marvelous fiftieth anniversary celebration, and many of my student athletes
Speaker 3: were there from the early days and it was a
Speaker 3: really fabulous event. So it was a great evolution, but
Speaker 3: trust me, it was a learning experience every day.
Speaker 1: You've talked in previous interviews about learning on the job
Speaker 1: and the importance of failure, of really understanding that failing
Speaker 1: is not always just about failure. There's a lot to
Speaker 1: learn from that, and there's a lot of growth in there.
Speaker 1: I love talking to successful people about failure because I
Speaker 1: think too often we hear from successful people and they
Speaker 1: tell all the good stuff, and the folks looking up
Speaker 1: and wondering how it gets done, think, well, I couldn't
Speaker 1: possibly do that. I make too many mistakes or I've
Speaker 1: had too many, you know, moments of failure in my life.
Speaker 1: I love when folks who are really successful can share
Speaker 1: that they've had stumbles.
Speaker 2: Can you tell us of a good one? Do you
Speaker 2: have a good story of just falling on your face?
Speaker 3: Yeah? There was a time when I was had my
Speaker 3: team and the bus we were on the way to
Speaker 3: a game, and you know, you know the cadence and
Speaker 3: when you're arragging on campus, and I had this terrible
Speaker 3: feeling when we were approaching the campus that it didn't
Speaker 3: look like a game day.
Speaker 2: Oh no, and it was a road trip.
Speaker 3: And we actually arrived and the team that we were
Speaker 3: playing failed to mention that it was a doubleheader with
Speaker 3: the men's game, and we were scheduled to play in
Speaker 3: the first game and the men in the second, And
Speaker 3: obviously it was too close to the men's game to
Speaker 3: be able to play a women's game, so we actually
Speaker 3: had to stay and wait till the men's game was over,
Speaker 3: and we had to play the women's game after the
Speaker 3: men's game.
Speaker 1: So because you weren't early enough, you were looking at
Speaker 1: the schedule at the men's time thinking exactly exactly, and
Speaker 1: so obviously we had a lot of staff huddles after that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a little bit of a night cap game.
Speaker 3: Yeah, a little bit. And I think that, you know,
Speaker 3: failures just it's really not the fact that you feel,
Speaker 3: it's really what you do afterwards. And you know, you
Speaker 3: can't linger on things too long. You can't beat yourself up,
Speaker 3: you can't beat your players up, you can't beat your
Speaker 3: staff up. You know, everybody has to take a you know,
Speaker 3: a lesson that they've learned and they're going to get
Speaker 3: better and you move forward, and sooner or later those
Speaker 3: become some great stories that you tell and shows like.
Speaker 1: You have Yeah, right, the once the shame and embarrassment
Speaker 1: goes away, then it's pretty funny. Exactly what's the toughest
Speaker 1: part of your job as commissioner?
Speaker 3: I think right now one of the toughest part that
Speaker 3: myself and my colleagues in this role are dealing with
Speaker 3: is the massive changes that are happening as a result
Speaker 3: of once the House Settlement gets approved on April seventh,
Speaker 3: the entirely new environment with nil in the league office. Obviously,
Speaker 3: we don't have teams, we don't have student athletes, we
Speaker 3: don't have coaches. We have members, but our members are
Speaker 3: so focused on being able to adapt to the new environment,
Speaker 3: be able to provide additional financial benefits to student athletes.
Speaker 3: So we're trying to change as rapidly as the environment's changing,
Speaker 3: while we still have to focus on the day job.
Speaker 3: Like we have a championship going on right now that
Speaker 3: are very important to our teams, and somebody's going to
Speaker 3: earn the automatic qualifier into the women's NCAA Tournament and
Speaker 3: the men's tournament. Is next week, So we can't be
Speaker 3: so focused on how we're going to manage an il,
Speaker 3: how we're going to manage all of the new regulations
Speaker 3: with the House settlement, and ignore kind of current business,
Speaker 3: because this is very meaningful to our current coaches and
Speaker 3: student athletes. So juggling those two environments or two worlds
Speaker 3: is probably the most challenging thing on this day.
Speaker 2: And Age, yeah, you mentioned that House ruling.
Speaker 1: So for those unfamiliar, last made, the NCAA voted to
Speaker 1: settle the lawsuit regarding past pay for players or revenue
Speaker 1: sharing models. So two point seventy five billion dollar lawsuit
Speaker 1: that will allow member institutions to distribute funds up to
Speaker 1: twenty billion dollars to Division one athletes who have played
Speaker 1: since twenty sixteen, and the settlement decision the amount that
Speaker 1: will go to different athletes and sports and teams is
Speaker 1: a big issue right now as people try to figure
Speaker 1: out whether Title nine is at play and whether women
Speaker 1: athletes and women's programs will be deeply affected. Do you
Speaker 1: have any say at all as commissioner as to how
Speaker 1: your member team's schools spend the money that they're allotted.
Speaker 3: Now, we can only be a resource right now, the
Speaker 3: actual court rulings as settlement actually published a percentage distribution
Speaker 3: of the dollar amounts that would be quote unquote allocated
Speaker 3: to the sport of FDS football student athletes, to men's
Speaker 3: basketball student athletes, to women's basketball student athletes, and then
Speaker 3: to others. And you're exactly right in your analysis and
Speaker 3: your comments related to it that there's a lot of
Speaker 3: controversy whether you know those percentages are actually very fair
Speaker 3: or equitable at all. There's two separate areas. You have
Speaker 3: the back damages that are basically allocated by the courts,
Speaker 3: and then you have what's going forward, which will be
Speaker 3: I think what you're referring to of how much our
Speaker 3: schools are really allocate to their male athletes versus their
Speaker 3: female how much they allocate to say, a sport of
Speaker 3: basketball versus their Olympic sports, and all of those decisions
Speaker 3: are being meticulously worked through right now individually on each
Speaker 3: campus because we have small private institutions in the A
Speaker 3: ten and we have large land grand institutions, and so
Speaker 3: every athletic director and board and president is looking at
Speaker 3: it a little bit differently on their campuses.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it feels like there's you also mentioned the NIL
Speaker 1: era is part of your purview making sure that teams
Speaker 1: or schools are abiding by the rules when it's still
Speaker 1: sort of a wild wild West, or is that technically
Speaker 1: NCAA compliance.
Speaker 3: It's a combination of both, but we are absolutely trying
Speaker 3: to certainly encourage all of our schools doing it the
Speaker 3: right way. As you know, you know, your true nils,
Speaker 3: whether they're sponsorships or endorsements or whatever, are controlled by
Speaker 3: mostly third parties, and most of the institutions are educating
Speaker 3: their student athletes and trying to prepare them to be
Speaker 3: better spokespersons for themselves to be able to secure these deals.
Speaker 3: So we're really trying to advocate that, you know, you
Speaker 3: do it equal, fair and equal with both your male
Speaker 3: athletes and your female athletes. That you're just not coaching
Speaker 3: up your male student athletes, but you're coaching up your
Speaker 3: female student athletes, because there are as many upsides and
Speaker 3: opportunities for the female student athletes as there are for
Speaker 3: the men if they can have that opportunity to take
Speaker 3: a shot at it.
Speaker 1: So you've got name image and like this NIL, You've
Speaker 1: got house verses NCAA, you've got transfer portal stuff, which
Speaker 1: is relatively new, and you've got the age old issue
Speaker 1: of trying to get competitive matchups for your teams, trying
Speaker 1: to get them in prime time facing off against some of.
Speaker 2: The best teams across the country. How's that challenge been
Speaker 2: for you?
Speaker 3: The challenge has been good. We have partnerships with three
Speaker 3: of the best media companies in America. We have a
Speaker 3: huge media contract with ESPN and all of their platforms,
Speaker 3: with CBS and also with NBC. So being able to
Speaker 3: come out of three major media companies kind of stables,
Speaker 3: so to speak. It's amazing how many people have said
Speaker 3: to me every time I turn on the TV, I'm
Speaker 3: seeing an A ten team, And that's really kudos to
Speaker 3: our partners and to the partnerships that we have in
Speaker 3: our media rights deals for each one of those those
Speaker 3: partners and I think that it's really added to you know,
Speaker 3: even the boom and women's athletics, because we've been able
Speaker 3: to put you know, more on TV, whether it's streaming wise,
Speaker 3: and most times even with the streaming process right now,
Speaker 3: you know, the difference between cable TV, network TV and
Speaker 3: streaming is negligible. So it's just how fans consume sports,
Speaker 3: right now and we're trying to be at every level
Speaker 3: and on every platform.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you were one of the first advocates for awarding
Speaker 1: financial units to the women's NCAA tournament. Part of you
Speaker 1: were also part of getting that across the finish line.
Speaker 1: So for those who aren't familiar, can you explain what
Speaker 1: financial units are and why it took so darn long
Speaker 1: for the women's game to get them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know why it took so long, but
Speaker 3: you're right. I was the chair of the Women's Basketball
Speaker 3: Committee back in two thousand and ninety nine or nineteen
Speaker 3: ninety nine and two thousand and one of the initiatives
Speaker 3: out of our committee was really making a hard push
Speaker 3: for a NC Double, a revenue distribution unit for participation
Speaker 3: and advancement in the NC Double A championship that had
Speaker 3: been in place for the men's tournament. As most folks
Speaker 3: in America know, when teams are selected in March madness
Speaker 3: to the bracket, and then as they advance, there is
Speaker 3: a unit, a financial amount that is distributed to that
Speaker 3: institution or that conference for that participation and also for
Speaker 3: that success. So we can just you know, fast forward,
Speaker 3: hard to believe twenty four years later, and it had
Speaker 3: come up many times, and the rationale was always that,
Speaker 3: you know, well, there's not a clear accounting for the
Speaker 3: revenue generated by women's basketball because women's basketball was combined
Speaker 3: in a very big, bundled media package most recently, and
Speaker 3: I give a lot of credit to the president, Charlie
Speaker 3: Baker and the bundling of the women's basketball media rights,
Speaker 3: and so there became a clear revenue stream that could
Speaker 3: be identifiable and associated with NCAA Women's Basketball tournament. So
Speaker 3: the advent and the approval of that by the governing
Speaker 3: boards has been fabulous and it's actually going to be
Speaker 3: distributed that for the first time this year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for those who don't remember, this is all sort
Speaker 1: of in part because of the social media messages from
Speaker 1: Sedona Prince and some coaches and others during the NCAA
Speaker 1: tournament pointing out the discrepancies and the treatment of men's
Speaker 1: and women's teams during March Madness tournaments. And as a result,
Speaker 1: there was an independent study that really for the first
Speaker 1: time looked at the fact that, to your point, women's
Speaker 1: basketball and women's basketball tournament were bundled with all the
Speaker 1: other championships as part of a larger television deal and
Speaker 1: were extremely undervalued, and it made it really easy for
Speaker 1: folks to say that they were money losers when in
Speaker 1: fact they hadn't materially renegotiated the rights in over twenty years,
Speaker 1: and they were estimating it to be worth something around
Speaker 1: sixty million dollars a year upwards of one hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty million a year in coming years if they actually
Speaker 1: treated it like they did the men's property. And so
Speaker 1: as a result of all of that fallout and all
Speaker 1: the numbers that came out of getting actual data behind it,
Speaker 1: they were able to negotiate for a television rights deal
Speaker 1: that actually made sense based on the value of the tournament,
Speaker 1: which then, to your point, gives them the numbers that
Speaker 1: they need to say this makes money, and we can
Speaker 1: award money to the teams that move forward. And this
Speaker 1: is huge because what it does is it tells those programs,
Speaker 1: we are validating you for investing in your women's team.
Speaker 1: Here's the reward you get for investing and caring about
Speaker 1: your women's team. I wonder in the NCAA awards the
Speaker 1: units to the conference, and then the conference awards them
Speaker 1: to the specific schools. Do you know yet how the
Speaker 1: A ten will be distributing those women's units.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we all do it in the very same formula
Speaker 3: that will do it for the men. Like, for example,
Speaker 3: this year, when any team gets selected into either of
Speaker 3: the NCAA brackets, will automatically provide that institution with a
Speaker 3: fifty thousand dollars supplemental distribution because, as you know, as
Speaker 3: soon as you get into the NCUBA tournament, there's an
Speaker 3: entourage that develops and there's a lot of expenses that
Speaker 3: aren't paid by the reimbursements that the NCUBA ultimately will
Speaker 3: send to a school a few months from now. But
Speaker 3: then as the units are earned, we basically put all
Speaker 3: the units, men's units and women's units in the same pot.
Speaker 3: We basically back out in the formula or conference expenses,
Speaker 3: and then we have an equity pool that everyone in
Speaker 3: the conference gets the same dollar amount. Then we have
Speaker 3: a performance pool. So if you're the institution that actually
Speaker 3: was selected to the NCUBAA tournament, you're going to get
Speaker 3: a supplemental distribution that is unique only unique to your
Speaker 3: institution from the participation in the.
Speaker 1: You bring up something that I hadn't even thought of,
Speaker 1: which was before these units were applied. Not only was
Speaker 1: it not an economic opportunity if you invested in your
Speaker 1: women's team and they made a run in the tournament,
Speaker 1: but it could actually be a financial burden on schools
Speaker 1: if they're trying to pay for family members, staff members,
Speaker 1: and others to continue on in the tournament and they're
Speaker 1: not making any money off of it. So it's just
Speaker 1: it's a really, it's a really I think under talked
Speaker 1: about thing that this is going to change the outcomes
Speaker 1: for a lot of schools who are going to be
Speaker 1: able to invest more in the players and the teams
Speaker 1: on the women's side, you know.
Speaker 2: Related to that.
Speaker 1: One of the things that came out of the complaints
Speaker 1: about the March Madness treatment was that the term March
Speaker 1: madness actually wasn't allowed to be applied.
Speaker 2: To the women's game.
Speaker 1: Most folks, I think even players and coaches didn't really
Speaker 1: realize this. I'm wondering if as a commissioner you had
Speaker 1: to deal with that trademark disparity whenever the NCAA tournament
Speaker 1: came around. Did you have to be aware of when
Speaker 1: and where you were using that term for your women's
Speaker 1: versus men's teams Advancing.
Speaker 3: On the local level from a conference or an institution.
Speaker 3: We didn't really have to be. We weren't really aware
Speaker 3: because most of the use of March Madness on the
Speaker 3: men's side prior to this current year and actually last
Speaker 3: year as well, all of that marketing and advertising, etc.
Speaker 3: Was all managed by the nc DOUBLEA and they controlled it,
Speaker 3: and so there was you know, they're pretty tight strings
Speaker 3: and guardrails around institutions upon their selection into the NCUBA Championship,
Speaker 3: and even all the merchandise etc. That you see and
Speaker 3: that's sold, it's all controlled by the NCUBAA. It's really
Speaker 3: not controlled by the institution or the conferences.
Speaker 2: Got it.
Speaker 1: A few weeks ago, espns pte Thamil reported that the
Speaker 1: NCUBLEA is in discussions with media partners about expanding the
Speaker 1: NCAA tournament on the men's side, and that the women's tournament.
Speaker 2: Would follow suit. What have you heard about expansion and
Speaker 2: do you think the women's game is in a place
Speaker 2: to expand?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've heard the same that everyone else has heard.
Speaker 3: That it's under you. There's a pretty deep dive a
Speaker 3: study bing Noaulysis being conducted by both the men's and
Speaker 3: the women's NCAA Basketball committees. Charlie Baker has made some
Speaker 3: comments about it as well, and I think it would
Speaker 3: be a good thing, I think on the women's side,
Speaker 3: and it's very same on the men's side. I do
Speaker 3: think that there is the parody that's there. I think
Speaker 3: there are additionally more good teams that are out there.
Speaker 3: You have thirty one automatic qualifiers via the conferences, and
Speaker 3: I'm a firm believer that they should be protected. And
Speaker 3: then there's thirty seven additional slots that are available. But
Speaker 3: there are more than thirty seven qualified teams that deserve
Speaker 3: opportunities to get a crack at, you know, the national championship.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of challenges with that decision. You have
Speaker 3: to really put together new formats, maybe additional opening around
Speaker 3: sessions like currently is held at Dayton for the men's
Speaker 3: when and your first forward games that are there. But
Speaker 3: I think it's very doable. And the surge, the uptick
Speaker 3: in overall the good of the game and institutions branding
Speaker 3: their perception with their alumni and their benefactors and all
Speaker 3: of their programs once their name goes up on the
Speaker 3: board on selection Sunday is huge. And higher education right
Speaker 3: now is going into a couple of decades where the
Speaker 3: college age student athlete college age student is declining, and
Speaker 3: so anything that can help lift enrollment in colleges and universities,
Speaker 3: every little bit helps, and March Madness absolutely makes a difference.
Speaker 3: You can look at the statistics of schools that have
Speaker 3: been getting in year after year, as well as schools
Speaker 3: that get in for the first time, and see how
Speaker 3: long that they benefited from the afterglow of being in
Speaker 3: the bracket and competing for a national championship. You know,
Speaker 3: those three weeks, as you know, Sarah, they're iconic. I mean,
Speaker 3: we're getting ready. We're ten days away from it, and
Speaker 3: everyone you know, I think in the country and probably
Speaker 3: internationally can't wait for it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Mean there's definitely a handful of teams on the men's
Speaker 1: side that I have never heard that school mentioned or
Speaker 1: referred to in any capacity other than every year when
Speaker 1: the tournament comes around, and there they are and they're
Speaker 1: always in it, and it brings so much awareness and
Speaker 1: excitement around those universities. You know, you mentioned enrollment dropping
Speaker 1: in college's just in general.
Speaker 2: I think there's also a fear that.
Speaker 1: As a result of some of the rulings around the
Speaker 1: House versus NCAA and other things that there's a real
Speaker 1: end of course, the changing potential threats to the Department
Speaker 1: of Education in Title nine that the landscape for women's
Speaker 1: sports in the future could be grim at the collegiate level,
Speaker 1: particularly things like Olympic sports. Are you preparing in any
Speaker 1: way or having to prepare for the potential fight to
Speaker 1: keep some of these programs alive in the coming years.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's really important to make sure that
Speaker 3: we protect the broad based programs, and I do think
Speaker 3: that that's something that most athletic directors and conference commissioners
Speaker 3: are focused on. I know within the A ten we've
Speaker 3: had smaller committees working on what we can do to
Speaker 3: make sure that we continue to provide the number of
Speaker 3: opportunities that we're currently providing for both our male and
Speaker 3: our female student athletes in our Olympic sports programs. As
Speaker 3: you know, we don't we don't sponsor Division one football,
Speaker 3: and we're basketball centric league, so we'll always protect basketball,
Speaker 3: but we don't want to see a diminished for any
Speaker 3: of our Olympic sports at all, and I think that's
Speaker 3: critically important. And to touch on your comments them right
Speaker 3: before that when you were talking about some of the
Speaker 3: names of schools that you really don't ever hear of
Speaker 3: until all of a sudden you see their names in
Speaker 3: the bracket for March Madness. Like, we've had two experiences
Speaker 3: even with our institutions, when Davidson, you know, was in
Speaker 3: the championship with Steph Curry and then they've been in
Speaker 3: it since they've been in the A ten. And then
Speaker 3: both Mason and VCU have had, you know, just memorable
Speaker 3: runs to the final four. And you know, we're looking
Speaker 3: at the same for this year when we look at
Speaker 3: our top three teams and VCU should be an at
Speaker 3: large team, and then we have Dayton and George Mason
Speaker 3: that have had phenomenal seasons.
Speaker 2: On the men's side, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: And on the women's side, Richmond has been phenomenal, and
Speaker 3: our other two top teams have been Mason and Saint
Speaker 3: Joe's the same thing, you know, and those to get
Speaker 3: multiple teams in is so critical and the exposure that
Speaker 3: goes along with it.
Speaker 2: Yeah for sure. I mean I'll never forget the name
Speaker 2: Shaka Smart from that run. We all remember it.
Speaker 1: Last question for you, I know you served on the
Speaker 1: NCAA Division One Men's Basketball Committee.
Speaker 2: What was your biggest takeaway from working on that.
Speaker 3: It was a really unbelievable experience understanding the depth and
Speaker 3: the amount of work that goes into being a committee
Speaker 3: member on that men's basketball committee, And tremendous respect for
Speaker 3: the staff, for Dan gabbittt that runs that committee, and
Speaker 3: also for the folks that I served with, and in
Speaker 3: terms of you really have to almost step away from
Speaker 3: what your current day job is to be able to
Speaker 3: really commit the hours because it's so important to every
Speaker 3: single team to get every single selection right at the
Speaker 3: end of the day. Because of what we've been talking
Speaker 3: about for the last thirty minutes, it is, you know,
Speaker 3: it's really life changing. It is. It's life changing for
Speaker 3: those student athletes and also for historic institutions across the country.
Speaker 3: And my biggest takeaway has been, you know, nothing's easy
Speaker 3: at all, and working as a team is the only
Speaker 3: way that that whole iconic event comes together well.
Speaker 1: And being a women's player and someone who's so focused
Speaker 1: on making sure you elevate the women's side of the
Speaker 1: conference as well, it feels like kind of a sneaky
Speaker 1: way to be on the inside and learn all the
Speaker 1: ways the men's and women's side function differently, are treated differently,
Speaker 1: or given different resources. Were you able to take anything
Speaker 1: away that had you thinking, I'd like to apply this
Speaker 1: to the women's side, or I'd like to bring this
Speaker 1: over to the women'side, because I don't think it's getting
Speaker 1: a fair shot the same way.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, And i've been you know, my tenure on
Speaker 3: the committee has been recently, and so we did talk
Speaker 3: in the men's committee about the importance of being you know, balanced,
Speaker 3: and hey, if we're going to do this, we should
Speaker 3: share it. It's a great idea. We should share it
Speaker 3: with the women's committee to see if they're interested in
Speaker 3: doing the very same thing. And I don't think that
Speaker 3: everything works for both championships. I felt that way when
Speaker 3: I was at the ACC and we built an iconic
Speaker 3: women's event that sold out many many years in a row.
Speaker 3: I feel the same way here. We share a lot
Speaker 3: of great ideas at the A ten. We don't have
Speaker 3: to do everything identical, but I do feel strongly that
Speaker 3: they have to be done fairly. And you can't be
Speaker 3: cutting corners for either of your championships.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I know you're busy, right, now you got
Speaker 1: to get back to that tournament you're at currently.
Speaker 2: But thanks so much for the time and the insight.
Speaker 2: It's great to talk to you.
Speaker 3: Thanks Sarah, your show's great. Appreciate being on and visiting
Speaker 3: with you.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much to Bernadette for joining us. We have
Speaker 1: to take another break when we come back. More on
Speaker 1: DT's bun and the Rice Crispy mystery.
Speaker 2: Welcome back Slices.
Speaker 1: We've got a brief update from yesterday's guest, Alexa Philippoo.
Speaker 1: Now in case you missed it, she mentioned a previously
Speaker 1: untold story about Diana Tarassi and the origin of her
Speaker 1: famous bun. The claim from Tarassi's college room made at
Speaker 1: Yukon Morgan Valley is that DT used to lay up
Speaker 1: side down with her hair hanging over the edge of
Speaker 1: the couch, and then, using some sort of giant rice
Speaker 1: crispy treat as a table that held her brush and
Speaker 1: hairsprand stuff, would then meticulously collect all of her hair.
Speaker 2: Strands into her now famous button.
Speaker 1: We had a lot of questions about the rice crispy
Speaker 1: and Alexa, the brilliant reporter that she has got us
Speaker 1: some more info.
Speaker 2: Here's what she found out.
Speaker 4: Okay, I have an update on the Rice Crispy square situation.
Speaker 4: So Morgan Valley tells me that it was probably three
Speaker 4: foot by three foot. She thinks it was party sized
Speaker 4: and that it was in blue Rice Crispy wrapping. So
Speaker 4: if anyone has any recollection of these things existing in
Speaker 4: the early two thousands or some other time, that's what
Speaker 4: she's talking about. But I could not. I don't know
Speaker 4: how these existed, why these would exist, and how people
Speaker 4: would acquire them. So food for thought there.
Speaker 1: Okay, Now, I for one have never seen one of
Speaker 1: these party sized Rice Crispy treats, but now I kind
Speaker 1: of just want one so I can fully understand it's
Speaker 1: breath and majesty for myself. So if you have visual
Speaker 1: proof of this three foot by three foot wonder, you
Speaker 1: know where to send it. Good game at wondermedianetwork dot com.
Speaker 1: We love that you're listening, but we want you to
Speaker 1: get in the game every day too, So here's our
Speaker 1: good gameplay of the day.
Speaker 2: Obviously, send us.
Speaker 1: Your Rice Krispy tree pictures and tune into the A
Speaker 1: ten Women's Basketball Championship happening now.
Speaker 2: Games are streaming on Peacock.
Speaker 1: We'll link to the tournament schedule in our show notes,
Speaker 1: and we always love to hear from you, so hit
Speaker 1: us up on email Good Game at wondermedianetwork dot com
Speaker 1: or leave us a voicemail at eight seven two two
Speaker 1: o four fifty seventy. Don't forget to subscribe a rate
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Speaker 1: pitter pattering against your window. There's simply nothing like jumping
Speaker 1: under the covers, sinking into the bed and hearing the
Speaker 1: rain drops tiptap tiptap on your roof or window. Just
Speaker 1: known you're about to get some of the best sleep
Speaker 1: of your whole damn life. I'm realizing now this review
Speaker 1: is a big mistake. I immediately want to take us newze.
Speaker 1: Hold my calls, hold my text.
Speaker 2: Matter of fact, just do my job for me for
Speaker 2: the rest of the day. I'm going to bed now.
Speaker 2: It's your turn. Rate and Review. Thanks for listening, See
Speaker 2: you next week.
Speaker 1: Good game, Bernadette, Good Game, DT's bun you, Luis Rubialis
Speaker 1: and anyone still in his corner. Good game with Sarah
Speaker 1: Spain is an iHeart women's sports production in partnership with
Speaker 1: Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find us on
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: Production by Wonder Media Network, our producers are Alex Azzie
Speaker 1: and Misha Jones. Our executive producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz,
Speaker 1: Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder. Our editors are Emily Rutter,
Speaker 1: Britney Martinez, and Grace Lynch. Our associate producer is Lucy
Speaker 1: Jones and I'm Your host Sarah Spain