The 2026 NCAA women’s basketball tournament tips off Friday morning, opening an event that ESPN SVP of production Meg Aronowitz said would be the “biggest” tournament the network has ever produced.
Among the changes are a new studio host, a new full-time rules analyst, better broadcast windows, and even a new alt-cast at the Final Four. During a launch event in Phoenix last month, Aronowitz likened the production capacity ESPN will bring to Phoenix for the final weekend of the tournament to a College Football Playoff title game or Super Bowl.
Just a decade ago, some NCAA women’s tournaments still did not air live nationally. Until 2023, the championship game aired on ESPN’s cable network rather than ABC’s broadcast network. But this will be the third tournament aired as part of a new broadcast rights agreement between the NCAA and ESPN, which tripled revenue to the association. The result is an even greater investment into covering the tournament on the part of ESPN.
Aronowitz called the tourney the “crown jewel” of the package, which includes 42 total NCAA championship events.
Entering the season, women’s college hoops lacked a true phenom for fans to follow. The Caitlin Clark years generated explosive growth for the sport, giving way to a title run for Paige Bueckers and UConn. But last season, USC star JuJu Watkins went down with a torn ACL and will miss her second tournament this spring. Popularity could have dipped without a marquee name.
Instead, according to Sports Business Journal earlier this month, ESPN saw a 17 percent increase in viewership over last season. The regular season was the most-watched since 2008-09.
“When you think about men’s college basketball, you think teams and brands. When you think about women’s college basketball, you think stars,” Aronowitz said. “So I think what we’re starting to see is when you look at South Carolina’s team as a whole, or you look at UConn’s team as a whole, or Texas, there’s a big name on each of those rosters, but the support players are also starting to make a name for themselves.”
Fans may have built a relationship to the sport through the surge around Clark, Bueckers, and Angel Reese that is sustaining even without a star at that level.
Aligning with that growth, ESPN hired its first full-time rules analyst for women’s college basketball this season. Dee Kantner, who officiated 26 Final Fours as well as WNBA and NBA games during her career as a referee, will be live in the studio for the first and second rounds, then on-site from the Sweet Sixteen on with the top broadcast team.
New studio host Christine Williamson will also have her biggest assignment yet, anchoring coverage throughout the tournament. Aronowitz said her team is “proud” at how quickly Williamson has clicked as a fill-in on the immensely popular studio show.
“Christine came in, really, with no fear,” she explained. “When we announced that Christine was going to be the host, we gathered the entire team in Bristol for a couple of days and we had a real think tank around what we wanted the shows to look and feel like, how we wanted to introduce Christine in her role, and how she could lean into (Andraya Carter) and Chiney (Ogwumike). And use their expertise and their experience over the last couple of years, but also make the show her own.
“And the three of them all agreed in that moment, ‘We are going to be our own version of this show and cover the sport the way we want to do it, and sunset what has worked in the past.’ And you see a lot of similarities in what we’re doing, but those three have become fast friends. They were to begin with, but the chemistry there is undeniable. We could have probably made a mistake there, but Christine was the right person to hire, and it’s immediately set us in the right direction.”
Williamson has only worked a handful of shows with Carter and Ogwumike, including Selection Sunday. But Aronowitz said the veteran SportsCenter host has an innate ability to roll with sudden changes and pressure on air.
Aronowitz teased a new alt-cast to replace the popular Bird & Taurasi Show for the Final Four, but details have not been finalized for a replacement.
Other upgrades this year will include new graphics and music packages as well as improved broadcast windows.
“We’ve upgraded bigger windows, in some cases moving some men’s basketball games to different networks to be able to prominently feature women’s basketball,” Aronowitz said.
The NBA takes a back seat during the first weekend of March Madness, but ESPN airs the men’s NIT at the same time as the women’s tournament. Only five games during the first round will air on ESPN News, and just five on ESPNU. Most NIT games will air on ESPNU or ESPN+.
The biggest scheduling struggle continues to be for the national championship game. More than eight million people have watched the game each of the past three years on ABC, but it remains in a midday window.
This week, after ABC shelved an entire season of The Bachelorette, the network slotted a re-run of American Idol into the Sunday primetime slot over second-round tournament games. The singing competition show also aired last year on the night of the title game, after World News Tonight and America’s Funniest Home Videos, according to the ABC broadcast archives Wiki.
“The conversation continues to happen about the championship game not only being on ABC but being on ABC in primetime,” Aronowitz told Awful Announcing. “I think eventually we’ll probably get there.”
UConn is a big favorite to repeat as champions, with reigning Final Four teams South Carolina, UCLA, and Texas right behind them. Women’s college basketball is incredibly top-heavy, buoyed by WNBA rules effectively requiring players to stay at least three years in college. This helps toward the end of the tournament, when juggernauts face off and often have a shared history against one another.
Watkins is slated to return in the fall, but other budding stars like UConn’s Sarah Strong and Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo loom with breakout potential in the coming weeks.
“I think by the time we leave Phoenix, you’re going to have those big names heading into next season,” Aronowitz said.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.