Here’s the comparison of TV viewership numbers between women’s and men’s title games announced by Roberts: 

• The women’s title game between South Carolina and Iowa attracted an average of 18.7 million viewers.
• During Connecticut’s back-to-back national championship campaign, the men’s title game averaged less at 14.8 million.

There’s a massive disparity in television rights revenue by gender:

• The NCAA Women’s Tournament earned $6.5 million for its television rights with ESPN.
• The NCAA Men’s Tournament’s television rights with CBS, TNT, TBS, and truTV generated a significantly higher revenue of $873 million.
• The percentage difference in revenue highlights a disparity of 99%, according to Rachel Bachman.

The new eight-year, $920 million contract with ESPN, agreed upon in January, could potentially usher in a transformative era for women’s basketball.

Ralph D. Russo predicts that the deal, which grants the network exclusive rights to “40 championships, including the Division I women’s basketball tournament,” could be a game-changer. NCAA president Charlie Baker estimates that an “impressive 57% of the value of the deal — or $65 million annually — is tied to the women’s March Madness tournament.”   

After leading Grambling to a historic season, Donte Jackson became the first coach to win the Jobe Award twice, having previously won the award in 2018.

Grambling won the SWAC regular season championship for the second consecutive season, finishing with a 24-9 record and defeated nemesis Texas Southern in the SWAC conference tournament title game.

Jackson has a 120-102 record in seven seasons at Grambling, including an 80-42 mark in SWAC games.

“Donte Jackson has rewritten the narrative about Grambling basketball in the Division I era,” Angela Lento, Vice President of CollegeInsider.com said. Prior to his arrival, the program struggled for decades, finishing above .500 in conference play just eight times in 40 years. He has taken Grambling from second-division status to the top of the SWAC. Donte Jackson is the best coach in Grambling’s Division I history.”

The Ben Jobe Award is named in honor of one of the most iconic coaches in the history of basketball at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. (HBCUs). He is best known as the head coach of Southern University, a position he held for 12 seasons. He was also head coach at Alabama A&M, Alabama State, Talladega, Tuskegee, and South Carolina State.

His record at Southern was 209-141, including four NCAA Tournament appearances. He coached the Jaguars to one NIT appearance, five SIAC championships, 11 SWAC titles, and two NAIA Tournament Championships. Perhaps his most memorable moment as a coach was
leading No. 15 seed Southern to a 93-78 win over No. 2 Georgia Tech in the first round of the 1993 NCAA Tournament. It stands as one of the great upsets in the event’s history.

Coach Jobe passed away on March 10, 2017.

The recipient of the annual award is determined by a 10-member voting committee, which consists of current and former head coaches and two senior staff members of Collegeinsider.com.