Episode 12 - The WNBA CBA Is Here, Women's Tackle Football, and March Madness Magic

Intro and Cold Open

Caitlin: And we’re back again. We are. We have another week. We finally get to talk about it, you guys. The WNBA CBA.

Alex: We have an agreement.

Caitlin: Yes, we do. We’re also going to talk, I think, a new sport that we haven’t talked about yet.

Alex: Yes, Women’s National Football Conference. Yes, they tackle. Yes, full contact football.

Caitlin: And they start soon here.

Alex: And they start this coming weekend. And I think we’re also going to talk just some storylines around the rest of the leagues that we’ve covered.

Alex: Yeah, there’s so much going on right now between March Madness, the playoff push in the PWHL, and the NWSL firing up that we just got to cover it all.

Announcements — Substack Newsletter and Women’s History Month Episode

Alex: We’ll get into a roundup of those things, but a couple announcements right off the bat. We’re coming down to the end of March, Women’s History Month, and to celebrate and also to accommodate for our spring break plans with our kids, we plan on recording an episode and airing it next week on our usual schedule — an overview of some of the pioneers in women’s sports history who have brought us to this point in time. So just as a heads up, next week’s episode will not have updates on status of these leagues or anything like that. We’ll come back with that for our first April episode.

Caitlin: And luckily we got the CBA before we recorded this. We didn’t have to do an emergency recording and be like, breaking news from our hotel room in the Wisconsin Dells.

Alex: One other announcement — super cool. We have what I’d call maybe like a weekly episode recap that you can sign up to have hit your inbox.

Caitlin: Yeah, so we have the recaps we’ve been posting on our website. We’ve set up a Substack, which is going to have a little bit of a recap. We’re going to have some things that we may have talked about but didn’t really go deep into, and then kind of another spot for the “What to Watch” every week.

Alex: Yeah, so you head to our website. You’ll get a little pop-up for a Substack sign-up, and that’ll come every Friday.

Favorite Thing — Gophers Women’s Basketball March Madness

Alex: Okay, don’t get it twisted — for our YouTube audience or when you see clips of this, I am wearing a Badgers hat and I have good reason to be wearing a Badgers hat, but I am wearing maroon. I want to make it clear. We went to — this is probably both our favorite thing — we went to the women’s Gopher basketball Round of 32 game on Sunday. So they’re playing to get to the Sweet 16. If you are anywhere on the Internet, you’ve probably seen clips of the game-winning shot by Amaya Battle. What a game.

Caitlin: It was insane. That was my first time at Williams Arena and it was just electric. It was packed. It was loud. It was just nonstop.

Alex: Yeah, it was a completely impromptu buy for us just to go. We were like, what the heck, let’s take the girls. For me, it was really nostalgic. So I came up in the era of Lindsay Whalen and Janel McCarville. And actually the last time that the Gophers made it to the Sweet 16 was when I was in high school. So it was so cool to be back in that environment. 10,700 fans.

Caitlin: Crazy.

Alex: I was reading some stuff today saying that the crowd pop when that shot went in was probably one of the better crowd pops that you’ll hear for the size of the venue, how filled it was. And what I loved the most too was just seeing all of the young girls there watching. And what’s extra special about the Gopher women’s basketball team is that many of their stars played high school within 40 miles of the Twin Cities.

Caitlin: They all grew up in that same era, right? That Whalen era.

Alex: Yep. It’s pretty crazy for young girls to sort of watch that pipeline of hometown hero into college. First Sweet 16 appearance since 2005. That’s 21 years.

Caitlin: I think my favorite part — besides our oldest was really pretty into it — I think right before we walked in, there was the big March Madness sign. I was like, “Oh my gosh, we’re at a March Madness game.”

Alex: For my whole life, it was just a thing that happened on TV every year.

Peps Neuman — The Blanket Lady

Alex: I do have to shout out the Blanket Lady — Peps Neuman. So the Gophers, if you haven’t heard about Peps — there’s this 81-year-old woman who’s been to the Gopher women’s basketball games for the last 30-some-odd years, and in that time she was gifted this blanket by another fan. And now she will take the blanket out and she’ll run up and down the side of the Barn — Williams Arena, the Barn is the colloquial term for the stadium. And they’re like 31 and 9 since she started doing this.

What I didn’t realize about Peps Neuman is that she’s actually a women’s basketball pioneer. She grew up in Minnesota, grew up on a farm, loved basketball, wanted to play. They wouldn’t let her play on the boys’ high school team. And so by the time she got to her senior year — this was in the ’50s — she got a teacher to help her start a team where she could go play exhibition games. So she’s actually the pioneer of high school girls’ basketball in the state of Minnesota.

Headlines Roundup

Caitlin: FIFA announces that women’s teams must have at least two women staff members and at least one of those must be either an assistant or head coach in order to compete in FIFA tournaments.

Alex: Yeah, this is interesting. This actually applies to both national teams and club teams. In the last Women’s World Cup, I believe it was like 12 of the 32 teams had female head coaches. I’m not a huge fan of this being a mandatory rule — I want to make sure the right people are in the right roles — but I do think there are plenty of highly qualified women out there. And I also think it’s worth exploring potentially why women don’t end up in those leadership positions.

Caitlin: In NWSL weekend action, Angel City FC, Houston Dash, and Portland Thorns score emphatic victories to take top of the table honors. Expansion sides Denver and Boston struggle to find rhythm.

Alex: Yeah, Angel City FC, who finished kind of middle-bottom of the table last year, already has seven goals on the season, looking really solid. Portland somehow won 2-0 with nine players on the field. So far this season, we’ve played two weekends and there have been six red cards. Last season in total there were 12.

Caitlin: In the NWSL, Gotham FC announced their first-ever match at the New York Mets’ home, Citi Field, which has a capacity of 42,000.

Alex: This will be a rematch of last year’s final against the Washington Spirit. That game is going to be played on July 15th.

Caitlin: Denver Summit acquired Yazmeen Ryan and Delanie Sheehan from Houston Dash for an $800,000 transfer fee, bringing experienced champions into the new young club.

Alex: Yeah, I actually felt like Denver was lacking a real true scoring threat — that nine position we’ve talked about. Yazmeen Ryan brings that. She’s in the USWNT rotation from time to time. They notched their first point in club history with a 1-1 draw over the Orlando Pride over the weekend.

Caitlin: Minnesota Frost moves to top spot in PWHL standings behind a five-game win streak with Boston and Montreal still solidly rounding out the top three. Fight for the final playoff spot is still tight with nine games to go.

Caitlin: Ariel’s Project, a global asset manager run by Melody Hobson, is seeking $1 billion for its first fund focused on women’s sports.

Caitlin: A host of superstar athletes including A’ja Wilson, Megan Rapinoe, Sue Bird, and Alex Morgan announced the JPMorgan Chase Athlete Council dedicated to helping athletes navigate every aspect of their financial lives.

Alex: They’re doing this alongside some men’s athletes like Tom Brady and Dwyane Wade. We’ve talked about this before about how athletes come in out of college, maybe sign a big contract and all of a sudden have no idea how to manage that money.

Caitlin: Japan wins Asia Cup over Australia, punching their ticket to the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup ahead of three friendlies against the USWNT in mid-April.

Alex: They beat Australia, which is a big deal. They had almost 75,000 people at this final game in Sydney. Something else I picked up on — USWNT stars Naomi Girma and Sam Coffey actually posted a video speaking up on behalf of the women’s football clubs in the Asian Football Confederation for equal pay. Right now, those women’s teams received 12% of the winnings proportionately of the men’s side.

Caitlin: Wisconsin holds off a third-period surge by Ohio State to win back-to-back national championships in women’s hockey.

Alex: Should we count them? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine Natties for the women’s Badgers hockey team. It is their fifth in the last eight years. In that semifinal game against Penn State, they set a women’s Frozen Four attendance record with almost 15,200 people.

Caitlin: In NCAA women’s gymnastics, Florida stuns a stacked SEC field to take the tournament crown.

Alex: Incredible performance on uneven bars from Selena Harris-Miranda. She scored a perfect 10. The announcers were saying — Aly Raisman was helping announce — “If they don’t give her a 10, I don’t know what a 10 is.” Big win for Florida coming in and upsetting Oklahoma, who had won the regular season. UCLA predictably swept the Big Ten behind Jordan Chiles. Just to put the SEC quality into perspective: UCLA won the Big Ten tournament by 0.625 points. The top four teams in the SEC were separated by 0.7 points. Florida edged out Oklahoma by 0.025.

Caitlin: The Sweet 16 is almost set with almost all high seeds advancing, except for Iowa who was dropped by Virginia.

Alex: West Virginia, a four seed, lost to Kentucky, a five. That four/five grouping — which is what Minnesota was in — has been very competitive. The threes versus the sixes and the fours versus the fives have been competitive games, whereas the ones and twos have been blowouts.

Caitlin: Justine Siegal is named first-ever Women’s Professional Baseball League Commissioner.

Alex: We will talk about the Women’s Professional Baseball League, which has its opening day on August 1st. Siegal was the first woman ever to coach a professional men’s team and she did actually throw batting practice in the MLB.

Caitlin: Paralympics viewership numbers are in — 414 million video views on the International Paralympic Committee’s YouTube channel, up 712% from the 2024 Paris Paralympics.

Caitlin: Jessie Diggins finishes her storied cross-country skiing career over the weekend, landing her fourth overall World Cup title. Legend.

Alex: She’s from here, certainly one of the best to ever do it.

WNBA CBA Deep Dive

Alex: We’re not going to deep-dive on every single detail of the CBA. We’re going to share some of them, how we got to this point, and then we both have some points that we think are important coming out of this agreement.

How we got here: it took over 100 hours negotiating in New York City, face to face. On the union side, executive committee president Nneka Ogwumike and Brianna Stewart, one of the vice presidents, were there the whole time. There was a rotation of other exec committee players — Alysha Clark, Napheesa Collier flew in for a while, Brianna Turner. They had the union leadership, Terri Carmichael Jackson and Deb Willig. On the league side, Cathy Engelbert was there the whole time, with ownership representation from Claire Wu Tsai, owner of the New York Liberty, and Jennifer Rizzotti, president of the Connecticut Sun.

It’s a seven-year term with an option to opt out and renegotiate at six years. Salary cap went from $1.5 million in 2025 to $7 million. Super max salaries are now 20% of that cap — about $1.4 million, up from $250,000 last season. Average salary is up to $584K, from about $110-120K. Minimums are now $300,000 — the minimum salary now is more than the super max was last year.

For the first time, salary is tied to revenue growth. The previous CBAs had a fixed rate of increase regardless of growth. Now 20% of gross revenues will be shared.

A couple other important things: players have to consent to a trade if they are pregnant before the trade happens. Teams are now required to carry a 12-player roster. There’s a developmental player pool whose salaries don’t contribute to the salary cap. There are accelerated pathways for max contracts on rookie contracts. And retiree back pay based on years of service.

“It truly is transformational.” — Alex

According to Kathy Engelbert, they are still targeting that May 8th regular-season tip-off. But we have a wild April ahead — two expansion team drafts, free agency for over 100 players, and the college draft on April 13th with training camps starting on the 19th.

The EPIC Rule

Caitlin: The thing I found really interesting is this new provision called the EPIC rule — the Exceptional Performance on Initial Contract rule. This allows players who have made an All-WNBA team, first or second team, to negotiate the fourth-year salary up to a maximum contract, or a player who has won an MVP to be eligible to negotiate up to a super max. You have to sign a three-year extension with the team you’re on.

Aliyah Boston — she’s entering the fourth year of her rookie contract and can actually go back retroactively to renegotiate. She was an All-WNBA second-team selection in 2025. Caitlin Clark, All-WNBA first-team selection in 2024, would be eligible for the max in 2027. If she wins MVP, she’d be eligible for the super max. And Paige Bueckers was named to the All-WNBA second team in 2025, so she’d be eligible for the max in 2028.

Alex: I love that. If you think about the pipeline — the Caitlin Clarks, the Paige Bueckers, the Aliyah Bostons — those are the players that came out of college with the NIL deals, the brand recognition that attracts viewership and therefore ticket sales and merchandise sales. They deserve it. They probably deserve more.

Women’s National Football Conference

Alex: Founded in 2018, the WNFC played its first season in 2019. It’s now in its sixth year with 17 teams — 16 standard teams and one exhibition team — with players from 20+ countries. Their mission is very straightforward: accelerate financial equity for women through football.

Their championship is called the Nine Cup, named after Title IX. The 2025 Nine Cup was aired live on ESPN2 — the league’s first live TV broadcast — with 150,000 viewers. They have 15+ million social media followers across athletes and league accounts. It is one of the fastest-growing sports properties in the U.S.

Caitlin: We’ve got four divisions — Pacific, Northwest, Central, and Atlantic — with some fun team names. The season kicks off this weekend on Saturday on Victory+.

The Texas Elite Spartans are the defending champions. 8-1 last year with a +259 point differential. Their defense only allowed 26 points all season. Not average. All season. Less than three points per game. They’re led by quarterback Michelle Angel, last year’s team MVP, and the league’s defensive MVP Joel Grimsley.

The ownership model is invitation-only, targeting successful business owners with football connections, supported by an NFL advisory board. They raised seed funding in 2024 for infrastructure, digital improvements, and medical support.

Alex: Three things that are really interesting. First, their philanthropy arm Got Her Back — free clinics, camps, mentorship in different communities. They impacted over 10,000 girls across 20+ events last year. The founder, Odessa Jenkins, is specifically focused on ensuring girls of color have opportunities.

Second, they’re looking at the 2028 Olympics and flag football. Each tackle team now has a flag football team for 18+, positioning the league to ride the Olympic wave.

Third, on the medical side — all the concussion research, all the injury data, it’s all based on men. The WNFC has established a medical advisory board specifically for female athletes covering psychiatry, sports medicine, endocrinology, surgery, performance science, and TBI and concussion protocols. They also require all coaches and staff to be CPR and AED certified.

League Roundup — NWSL Attendance and Player Movement

Alex: I just can’t get over the attendance records. 129,000 people that first NWSL weekend, averaging 16,000 fans per game. Portland Thorns had a home opener record of 21,000. Gotham FC had 10,796 at theirs. Houston Dash had a record home opener of 10,200.

The PWHL is seeing similar trends — average attendance in the first two weeks of March is over 50% greater than this time last year. Denver Summit’s home opener Saturday is going to set a new attendance record with over 50,000 people.

Caitlin: Earlier this year we were worried about player drain to European leagues. And then Lindsey Horan came back to Denver. Kat Marcario came back to San Diego from Chelsea. And it’s pretty certain that Sam Kerr is going to leave Chelsea at the end of her contract and come to the NWSL.

Alex: She would be a massive draw. Her wife is American, they just had a baby. There are very few non-American national team players that would draw as much attention as Sam Kerr.

PWHL Playoff Picture

Caitlin: We have a nearly three-way tie at the top. Frost, Boston, and Montreal at 42, 42, and 40 points respectively. Minnesota has 67 goals for — Boston has 49 and Montreal has 53. Minnesota is a powerhouse offensively.

Alex: They’ve got the goaltending tandem switching between Hensley and Rooney. Defensively, the penalty kill has been atrocious. But if Grace Zumwinkle or Taylor Heise get the puck, there’s like a 75% chance we’re scoring.

The big news: national broadcast of the PWHL playoffs on Ion through Scripps Sports. A Bank of America Institute consumer report indicated women’s sports viewership has tripled since 2020, with 250% league growth projected by 2030. Women’s sports fans’ discretionary spend is actually higher than men’s sports fans.

NCAA Women’s Basketball — Coaches Making the Difference

Alex: I’ve got my eyes on the Duke Blue Devils because of head coach Kara Lawson. She’s also the head coach of the United States women’s basketball team, and this woman knows how to drop a line.

She’s been quoted as saying: “We don’t get to control the length of our adversity. You get to control who you are in it.”

And this one: “We all wait in life for things to get easier. It will never get easier. What happens is you handle hard better. So make yourself a person that handles hard well.”

Maryland head coach Brenda Frese — a former Gophers head coach — went viral for getting in a player’s face, and those who can lip read figured out she said: “I need you to lock in. Stop being distracted. I believe in you, but you’ve got to want this moment. This isn’t my story.”

Caitlin: We have this potential Elite Eight matchup between Vanderbilt and UConn. Mikayla Blakes at 27.1 points per game going up against Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong. UConn coached by Geno Auriemma, Vanderbilt by Shea Ralph, who used to be an assistant at UConn. Blakes is only a sophomore and she’s setting single-season scoring records.

Winners and Losers

Alex: Winners have got to be WNBA fans. Getting the CBA done, knowing the season is still on track — that’s a huge win for everyone involved.

Caitlin: Current and future players. If you’re an Azzi Fudd looking at this landscape right now, you’d be like, this is perfect.

Alex: Losers — honestly, me, for not realizing the Women’s National Football Conference has been around for so long. As a football lover and a lover of women’s sports, that took me by surprise.

Caitlin: My losers are all the dudes on social media saying “nobody watches women’s sports.” 129,000 opening weekend NWSL. Denver selling 50,000 tickets. Over $1 billion in WNBA salaries over seven years. Viewership tripled since 2020. How can you look at all this and say nobody watches women’s sports?

“It has been proven time and again that when you put money towards women’s programs, it is not about their ability to perform. It is about their access and their opportunity and their support.” — Alex