March Madness is the best three weeks in college sports, hands down. What makes this sporting event so entertaining are the multiple Cinderella runs we see from colleges we have never heard of. However, there never seem to be any of these runs from the women's side of the tournament.
Many remember No. 15 seed St. Peter’s run to the elite eight a few years ago. This incredible run included knocking off top teams in college basketball, such as Kentucky or Purdue. One of the most fascinating underdog stories in March Madness occurred last year when No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson University took down one-seed Purdue, making it only the second time a 16-seed beat a one-seed.
Many stories like that of St. Peters and FDU come out of men’s March Madness every single year, but not many from the women's side.
This occurrence is not due to the lack of coverage in women’s sports but rather because the talent gaps are much larger in men’s college basketball than in women’s.
This year, in women’s college basketball, there was only one case of the higher seed beating the lower seed. In comparison, there were 11 upsets in the first round of men’s March Madness.
This disparity derives from the fact that every single first-round game in women’s March Madness is not in a neutral location. The lower seed in the women’s tournament always receives a home-court advantage. This causes more predictability in the women's tournament.
The lack of upsets in women’s March Madness also often comes from the dominance of the top teams competing. This is evident with the highest betting spread in the tournaments. The spread is “the expected final score difference between two teams.”
The biggest betting spread in the men's round of 64 was the 26.5 points between No. 1 UConn and No. 16 Stetson. In the women's tournament, top seed South Carolina was favored by 55.5 points over 16-seed Presbyterian. The Gamecocks could not live up to the spread expectations and won by 52 points.
South Carolina has been one of the most dominant teams in college basketball history. The Gamecocks are currently in the midst of an undefeated season. While it is impressive to win more than 30 games in a season, it happens frequently in women’s college basketball. Nine women's teams have finished a season undefeated since 1985, the last time happening in 2015-16. The last time a men’s team finished a season undefeated was in 1975-76.
Many people’s favorite part of March Madness is filling out brackets in the hopes of filling out the first perfect bracket. If you have not filled one out yet, filling out a few women’s brackets would historically give someone a much better chance of achieving the one in 9.2 quintillion odds.
Quinn Elfers is a freshman studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Want to share your thoughts about the column? Let Quinn know by emailing him at me989022@ohio.edu.
