NCAA President Charlie Baker claimed TV rankings for the NCAA women’s volleyball match rose “100%” this yr throughout an interview on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Present” Thursday.
The surge comes simply one year after the 2023 match noticed a 115% improve from 2022.
“The rankings this yr grew a bit too, by one other 100%,” Baker boasted in the course of the interview. “Individuals like to see competitors. Individuals like to see younger folks compete, and we received to cease speaking about sports activities aside from soccer and basketball as ‘non-revenue.’”
Baker celebrated the surge in viewers forward of the semifinals Thursday night time, when Pittsburgh takes on Louisville and Penn State takes on Nebraska.
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This yr’s match almost had an look by San Jose State amid a nationwide controversy that overshadowed a lot of the school volleyball season. San Jose State volleyball participant Brooke Slusser has an lively lawsuit in opposition to the NCAA and leads one other lawsuit with a number of different gamers in opposition to the Mountain West Convention.
The lawsuits allege Slusser and different gamers have been pressured to compete with transgender participant Blaire Fleming with out ever being informed of Fleming’s pure start intercourse. The controversy and the transgender athlete’s continued presence on the crew all through the season resulted in forfeits of seven regular-season matches and a convention match semifinal.
It was an unprecedented string of forfeits within the sport’s historical past. The backlash to the scenario resulted in a menace in opposition to Slusser and added police safety for the crew in any respect dwelling and away video games this yr, Fox Information Digital previously reported.
The controversy even drew criticism from Donald Trump throughout a Fox Information city corridor in October.
San Jose State previously confirmed to Fox Information Digital the crew didn’t notify any opponents on its schedule of the scenario involving Fleming all through the season, solely giving notification to different faculties of wanted further safety.
police safety The inclusion of the transgender participant was even challenged in courtroom. Slusser and different gamers concerned in her lawsuit sought to have Fleming faraway from the Mountain West match.
SJSU transgender participant Blaire Fleming, left, and teammate Brooke Slusser went to a magic present and had Thanksgiving collectively in Las Vegas regardless of an ongoing lawsuit over Fleming being transgender. (Thien-An Truong/San Jose State Athletics)
Colorado District Choose Kato Crews allowed Fleming to play within the match, ruling the plaintiffs’ request for an emergency delay “was not affordable” and “would danger confusion and upend months of planning and would prejudice, at a minimal, [San Jose State] and different groups taking part within the match.”
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So Fleming, Slusser and the opposite SJSU Spartans went to Las Vegas for the match and even received a bye within the first spherical by advantage of six convention video games forfeited by opponents.
Boise State had already forfeited two regular-season conferences to San Jose State amid the controversy as a result of the college’s dwelling state of Idaho has an government order in place to bar transgender athletes from ladies’s sports activities. So, after Boise State beat Utah State within the quarterfinal spherical, the Broncos forfeited a 3rd time within the semifinal to ship San Jose State to the championship match.
San Jose State College Spartans head coach Todd Kress speaks with reporters after a loss in an NCAA Mountain West ladies’s volleyball recreation in opposition to the Colorado State College Rams in Fort Collins, Colo., Oct. 3, 2024. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle by way of Getty Pictures)
Colorado State defeated San Jose State within the remaining, maintaining Fleming and the Spartans out of the NCAA match.
After that match, Spartans head coach Todd Kress provided a statement to Fox Information Digital.
“Every forfeiture announcement unleashed appalling, hateful messages people selected to ship on to our student-athletes, our teaching employees and lots of related to our program,” Kress stated.
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