On Monday night in Phoenix, UConn’s men’s basketball team became just the seventh program to win back-to-back national championships. While Purdue and 7’ 4’’ big man Zach Edey put up a fight in the first half, the Huskies did what they’ve done all tournament: cruised to a double-digit lead in the last 20 minutes of the game, making it look easy to crush one of the best teams in the country.

In doing so, the Huskies have proven that, unlike in FBS football, a non-Power 5 school can dominate in basketball. Since the College Football Playoff was created in 2014, every single national champion has come from one of the NCAA’s richest conferences. (The only arguable exception: Central Florida, which claimed a title in 2017 after not being admitted to the playoff, despite going undefeated.)

In men’s basketball, there have been five non-Power 5 champions in the past decade alone. Four now belong to the Big East: Villanova has two, and UConn two. The Huskies also won in 2014, when they were part of the American Athletic Conference.

The NCAA President’s Pregame

Before the game tipped off, NCAA president Charlie Baker dropped by the media workroom to answer questions from reporters. His predecessor, Mark Emmert, used to hold a press conference during the Final Four every year, but Baker prefers to fly under the radar. 

This time Baker spent a significant amount of time reiterating his desire to end prop betting in college sports, which not only leaves players vulnerable to illegal gambling activity but also puts them at a risk for more online harassment. At one point he referenced conversations about prop bets surrounding Caitlin Clark, asking, “Is that really what we should be talking about in the middle of the women’s Final Four?”
When Front Office Sports asked Baker whether he was surprised by the colossal women’s Final Four ratings and whether he thought the tournament could’ve been sold for more money, he praised ESPN’s coverage and its elevation of women’s basketball, and he reiterated talking points about the positives of a new $920 million NCAA championship media deal, which commences in September. But his non-answer may have been telling: He did not directly say whether he thought the governing body could’ve milked more money for the women’s tournament component of the deal.

The women’s Final Four has gotten much too big to take place at the exact same time—but in a completely different location—as its men’s counterpart. 

The industry may have accepted the overlap when the women’s event was much smaller, and treated as an afterthought. But that era is now in the NCAA’s rearview mirror. This year’s women’s Final Four in Cleveland was, by far, the most successful women’s championship weekend on record, with get-in ticket prices starting at $500 for the championship game, sellouts for games, more than 17,000 attending open practices, media coverage across national outlets and megacast treatment from ESPN, and multiple viewership records for the most-watched ESPN basketball game (ending with a championship game viewed by an average of 18.7 million people). But the timing and location of the event, which was the same weekend as the men’s event in Phoenix, forced media, fans, and industry executives to either bend over backward to attend/cover both, or choose between one Final Four or the other.

The women’s championship game, for example, tipped off just after 3 p.m. ET in Cleveland, a window chosen to allow the event to be broadcast on ABC. But in Phoenix, press conferences for both Purdue’s and UConn’s men’s coaches and players took place between 11:45 a.m. PT and 3 p.m. PT—the exact same time as the women’s championship. If reporters covering Dan Hurley’s pre-championship game presser wanted to see the confetti fall on South Carolina and a teary-eyed Dawn Staley, they had to watch streams on their phones or laptops from the press conference room. (The women’s championship was broadcast on some of the televisions in the media workroom in Phoenix, but the sound was barely audible.)

Many media outlets split their coverage between the Final Fours, especially national outlets and, with NC State and UConn playing in both events, outlets from their regions. But with the media industry suffering constant layoffs and increasing budget constraints, it’s going to be more and more difficult to sustain quality in-person coverage in two places at once.

Administrators, too, either have to choose or endure a grueling travel schedule. This year, the Big East’s Val Ackerman and the SEC’s Greg Sankey both flew from Cleveland, where their conference’s teams were playing in the women’s semifinals, to Phoenix, where their men’s teams were playing in the same event Saturday. The trip covers more ground than the one between Paris and Moscow. Given that South Carolina made it to the final, Sankey flew back to Cleveland for the title game Sunday. 

And then there are the fans. This was the first time that two schools had teams in both Final Fours, but it’s not infrequent that one school (often UConn) will send teams to both. For now, fans who have traveled to either event are relegated to watching the other Final Four on television. 

For years, administrators have discussed the idea of combining the championships in one location. Ackerman has been a longtime advocate of the idea, which was revisited in 2021 as a potential fix to multiple gender equity issues between the two events. But the NCAA ultimately decided against even trying the idea for at least a decade, citing multiple potential negatives: namely, the logistical difficulties of finding cities that could handle both Final Fours, and a fear that the women’s event could be overshadowed by the men’s (though, at this point, that fear is likely no longer an issue). On Monday, NCAA president Charlie Baker told reporters that the governing body is attempting to fast-track a review of the women’s tournament’s structure, hinting that the combined-championship idea could be revisited. One potential solution: The NCAA could host the events on two different weekends to fix these problems, though that could put one of the championships up against the Masters. 

Either way, at this point, the downsides of not fixing the issue are clearly bigger than those of not doing so. No one should have to choose between college basketball’s two biggest championships. 

Another potential mega-merger is poised to change the landscape of sports media, and likely in ways not yet fully understood. 

David Ellison, the CEO of Skydance Media and son of billionaire tech mogul Larry Ellison, is making a push to acquire National Amusements, the Shari Redstone (above, left) family company that controls CBS parent Paramount Global. In a complex two-stage transaction now under discussion, Redstone would receive more than $2 billion in cash, and then Paramount Global would acquire Skydance in an all-stock deal worth about $5 billion, with David Ellison likely leading the new entity.

Nothing is final yet, but the two sides have agreed to a month of exclusive talks, signaling that a definitive pact could be struck. The developing situation arrives about five weeks after Paramount Global ended early-stage merger talks with TNT Sports parent Warner Bros. Discovery. 

Since the death of Redstone’s late father, Sumner, in 2020, Paramount Global stock is down by nearly two-thirds, putting her under increasing pressure to boost shareholder value, and S&P Global Ratings last month cut its rating of the company’s debt to junk status. 

If Ellison is able to complete a deal, it would bring under one corporate umbrella a media company that has rights to the NFL, half of the men’s March Madness, several top college conferences, and golf’s Masters, among other assets, along with a fast-growing documentary unit behind such projects as the highly popular Kelce on Amazon Prime Video. The NFL is also an investor in Skydance Media.

Skydance is reportedly set to get financial help on the Paramount Global deal from Larry Ellison, RedBird Capital Partners, and KKR, and if completed could also see Jeff Shell, the former NBCUniversal CEO and current RedBird chairman of sports and media, assume a senior leadership role in the combined operation. 

Immediate Pushback

There is other interest in Paramount Global, including from the private equity firm Apollo Global Management, but for now the board is favoring the Skydance possibility. Matrix Asset Advisors, a large owner of Paramount Global stock, wrote the company board Monday, however, arguing that the proposed Ellison deal benefits Redstone at the expense of other investors, and suggested that shareholder lawsuits could be forthcoming. 

“This deal focuses on Shari Redstone’s shareholding for cash at a significant premium,” Matrix Asset Advisors wrote. “The vast majority of shareholders would not receive a similar premium and would be forced to finance a speculative investment in Skydance in a transaction significantly dilutive to shareholder value.”

Investors also do not appear enthused, dropping Paramount Global stock 7.6% Monday to $11.06 per share. 

Editors’ note: RedBird IMI is an investor in Front Office Sports.