Category: Sports

by Duncan Weigand and Eden Kaplan–

Women’s sports are on the rise and one sport that is no stranger to the rise in popularity is college basketball. Viewership has absolutely soared since the tournament last year. The tournament produced record number viewership and it seems like it’s only becoming more popular. 

However, with the rise in popularity of women’s college basketball the numbers for the Women’s National Basketball Association have remained stagnant. Game 4 of the WNBA finals only drew in 889,000 fans in comparison to the 10 million viewers that Iowa and LSU brought in for their March Madness finals appearance. 

But why, if the popularity of women’s sports are on the rise do the WNBA numbers remain low. Is the WNBA failing to capitalize on an untapped market? Why hasn’t the success in the college game transferred over to the WNBA? Newsfeed reporters Duncan Weigand, and Eden Kaplan talk about this disparity.

by Jackson Hardy, Dakota Richmond–

The NBA season is just underway with the preseason occurring now. During the offseason, we saw teams making big trades for top caliber players. Bradley Beal went to the Phoenix Suns from the Washington Wizard. The Milwaukee Bucks acquired Damian Lillard from the Portland Trail Blazers. These trades have created the rise of superteams, or teams with three or more All-Star level players. 

Superteams are not a new concept with the first being created in the 1970s when the Los Angeles Lakers drafted Magic Johnson, but they are becoming more prevalent. Superteams have received a lot of controversy among fans with many stating superteams create an imbalance of power in the league. In this podcast, Jackson Hardy and Dakota Richmond talk about the rise of superteams in the NBA. 

by Camden Osborne and Kalley Sullivan–

After social media exposed the disparities between the men’s and women’s post-season college basketball tournaments, the NCAA responded to these gender inequities recently announcing that the “March Madness” logo, terminology, and branding historically used for the men’s tournament will now be used for the women’s tournament as well.

In this edition of The News Feed’s Sports Podcast, we take a look at this step In this edition of The News Feed’s Sports Podcast, we take a look at this step towards a more gender-equal playing field in the world of sports and what this could mean for the future of female athletes. We will discuss the effectiveness of this NCAA decision in regard to the public’s perception of women’s basketball and, more broadly, sports, as well as what further changes this could ignite moving forward.

by Rory Ailor and McKenzie Roberts–

On this edition of the Sports podcast for The News Feed, Rory Ailor and McKenzie Roberts discuss the aftermath of allegations made toward Deshaun Watson. Watson is a 26-year-old Houston Texans football player, who has been accused of being a sexual assailant for many women. According to The Clemson Insider Watson has lost a lot of his sponsorships due to these accusations, not to mention the support lost by fans. Watson’s Nike sponsorship became suspended, Reliant Energy removed him as a brand ambassador, and Beats by Dr. Dre terminated his contract. 

The sport that brought him much success has been put to a halt. According to Larry Brown Sports, he is still a member of the Houston Texans team but has not played for the past few games. Throughout this podcast Rory Ailor and Mckenzie Roberts discuss what Deshaun Watson’s future might entail.