04/04/26 04:09:00
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04/04 16:07 CDT Cheryl Miller and other women's hoops greats discuss state of
the game at AP Top 25 Poll Experience
Cheryl Miller and other women's hoops greats discuss state of the game at AP
Top 25 Poll Experience
By ALANIS THAMES
AP Sports Writer
PHOENIX (AP) --- When basketball great Cheryl Miller thinks of the state of the
women's game today, she is filled with pride.
Pride with how interest and investment in women's hoops has skyrocketed since
her days dominating at Southern California. Pride with how women's athletes are
celebrated. Pride with the development in player skill over the years.
"A lot of these players are so dedicated, not just the X's and O's or the
physical, their skillset," said Miller, who was honored this week as one of the
greatest players of The Associated Press women's basketball poll era, "but
taking care of their bodies, the nutrition and sleeping better and what's
provided for them now at certain universities and programs. It's just the
evolution of the game itself."
Miller and other women's basketball trailblazers, including Big East
Commissioner Val Ackerman and former UCLA standout Ann Meyers Drysdale, spoke
about the state of college sports at "The AP Top 25 Fan Poll Experience," which
was held at Arizona State's First Amendment Forum in the Walter Cronkite School
of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix.
Most conversations centered on how name, image and likeness along with the
transfer portal are shaping the college game.
The changes in college sports have permeated politics, and ahead of the start
of the Final Four for both men and women, President Donald Trump signed an
executive order aimed at restoring "order, fairness and stability" to college
athletics.
The order directs federal agencies to bolster the effectiveness of key rules on
transferring, eligibility and pay-for-play by evaluating whether violations of
such rules render a university unfit for federal grants and contracts.
South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, whose team will play Sunday in the national
championship game for the fourth time in five years, recently said her
conversations with recruits nowadays reflect the new college sports landscape.
While Staley's talks with recruits once centered on earning degrees, they're
mostly focused now on money, especially with players in the transfer portal.
That's the same adjustment Arizona State coach Molly Miller has been forced to
make.
"Recruiting a high school athlete is a lot different than recruiting a portal
athlete," Miller said on a panel hosted by the AP on Thursday.
"Their questions are totally different than the portal kids," she added. "Their
questions are, ?What's the student-to-teacher ratio?' When you get in the
portal they're like: ?Am I going to play? What's the depth chart like, is the
culture good and how much (money)?'"
Ackerman, who was the first president of the WNBA, sees tremendous growth in
institutional investment in women's college sports, which she pointed out was
evident in the success of the Final Four teams --- South Carolina, UConn, Texas
and UCLA --- in Phoenix.
While that growth is paying off in brand value and fan engagement, Ackerman
worries that it will lead to a wider disparity between schools with major
football revenue and institutions that rely on smaller revenue streams.
"I'm not sure what the future holds," she said. "I think it's going to require
leadership on campuses and innovation in terms of how to deploy resources that
are finite for all sports."
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AP Top 25 Fan Poll Experience:
https://apnews.com/https:/apnews.com/projects/arizona-state-fan-poll-experience/
___
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up
here and here (AP mobile app). AP women's college basketball:
https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and
https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball
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