Why are there such large blowouts in women's college bball?

[Jay Bee]

What all goes into this? "Team A is just that much better than Team B" doesn't seem to explain it all.. but, less parity is likely a reason for so many teams with +15 point margin averages in women's compared to men..

But.. even in championship games, for example.. lots of blowouts.. and then you get many crazy scores..

Or.. I get that UCONN is good.. but a 13-5 BEast team in Seton Hall loses to them fricken 96-36??

What are the reasons for this?
 

[Uncle Rico]

What all goes into this? "Team A is just that much better than Team B" doesn't seem to explain it all.. but, less parity is likely a reason for so many teams with +15 point margin averages in women's compared to men..

But.. even in championship games, for example.. lots of blowouts.. and then you get many crazy scores..

Or.. I get that UCONN is good.. but a 13-5 BEast team in Seton Hall loses to them fricken 96-36??

What are the reasons for this?
 

Less talent

[Billy Hoyle]

Less talent

Not just less talent but a higher concentration of top talent at the powerhouse programs than in the men's game. Since the WNBA does not allow women's players to enter the draft until after three years of college and there are significantly fewer roster spots available compared to the NBA the top recruits are going to programs where they know they'll win even if it means sitting as a freshman.

[Uncle Rico]

Not just less talent but a higher concentration of top talent at the powerhouse programs than in the men's game. Since the WNBA does not allow women's players to enter the draft until after three years of college and there are significantly fewer roster spots available compared to the NBA the top recruits are going to programs where they know they'll win even if it means sitting as a freshman.

Too many D1 programs are an issue as well.  It's not as pronounced in the men's game, but that's part of it, too.

[Billy Hoyle]

Too many D1 programs are an issue as well.  It's not as pronounced in the men's game, but that's part of it, too.

it's a similar situation in Women's soccer too. Men's soccer has 205 and you often see different programs in the College Cup with mid majors like Akron, Marshall and Vermont winning titles. In Women's Soccer there are 351 and only 10 teams have won a title since 1982.

Volleyball and women's hockey are similar with so few programs winning the national titles.

[Jockey]

Girls are fickle.

[cheebs09]

Would the fact it is more of a below the rim game, thus increasing the variability in shooting by having more jump shots? Might make it more likely for a team to be on a heater against a team that's cold.

[GB Warrior]

I'm asking Tommy Tuberville...will let you know what I learn.

[rocky_warrior]

Girls are fickle.

...mean spirited, and bad at math!

[BrewCity83]

Girls can't handle losing, they get easily discouraged, and they quit once they fall behind rather than having the spirit to battle back into the game.

[Pakuni]

Girls are lacking in spatial abilities, which makes it harder to shoot the three.

[Marquette Fan]

What all goes into this? "Team A is just that much better than Team B" doesn't seem to explain it all.. but, less parity is likely a reason for so many teams with +15 point margin averages in women's compared to men..

But.. even in championship games, for example.. lots of blowouts.. and then you get many crazy scores..

Or.. I get that UCONN is good.. but a 13-5 BEast team in Seton Hall loses to them fricken 96-36??

What are the reasons for this?
 

The Big East in Women's Basketball is not very strong and is called a mid-major by many people.  Seton Hall at 13-5 in the BE still wasn't that great a team this season.  Their coach tried to argue they should have gotten an NCAA at-large bid but they were nowhere near deserving of that.  The BE was always going to be a two bid league this year - no point even saying assuming uconn took the automatic bid because no one was going to upset them.  Creighton won all their BE games against teams not named UCONN to grab the second BE NCAA bid.

UCONN has a highly rated frosh from Neenah who barely played this year - she'd likely be starring at any other BE school.

[yamarama]

it's a similar situation in Women's soccer too. Men's soccer has 205 and you often see different programs in the College Cup with mid majors like Akron, Marshall and Vermont winning titles. In Women's Soccer there are 351 and only 10 teams have won a title since 1982.

Volleyball and women's hockey are similar with so few programs winning the national titles.

I think sometimes people overlook that Men's championships are often not as spread out as one may think. And, Women's sports has seen increased parity.

I will use 1982 since that is what you used in your post.

Since 1982, there have been 21 different NCAA Men's Basketball Champions. Since 1982, there have been 16 different Women's Basketball National Champions. Not the same, but not as far apart as one might think. Since 1982 there have also been "only" 20 different NCAA Football National Champions. Winning championships can be limited to a smaller group because it's tough to do. I think sometimes the smaller group concentration of winners in Men's sports gets overlooked when Women's sports are discussed.

UConn won the Women's Basketball Title this year. It was their first in a decade. Last year the UConn's Men's team won the NCAA title. Their margin of victory each round: 39, 17, 30, 25, 14, 15. It might not be exactly the same, but the point is Men's teams have some lopsided games too.

Since 1982 there have been 11 different NCAA Women's Soccer Champions. Since 1982 there have been 17 different Men's National Champions. Note that many Women's soccer programs began in the mid 1990's or even later. So, it's not the same, but not as far apart some may think.

This year with the Women, UNC won it for the first time in 13 years. But since 1982, 23 different programs have made the Final Four. And, since 1982, over 90 different programs have made a Sweet 16. New ones have made it. More teams are having success, getting closer. And it's different teams each year.. 59 of 68 P4 Women's programs have missed the NCAA Tourney at least once in the past 7 years. And half of the top 100 programs in a given year, aren't P4 programs.

Soccer has a lot of different factors contributing to it. It's more than just the number of programs that exist Men vs Women. It's which schools have programs. P4 has the money. In Men's Soccer, there are zero SEC and zero Big 12 Men's programs. And neither the ACC nor the Big 10 have all schools fielding teams. That makes the league much less of a big deal than the Women's game. In Women's Soccer, the top programs have 7 figure annual budgets, and NIL.

This year roughly 50 prep male American soccer players will go pro and skip college. That's also a factor. With Women it's still a little less than 10 skipping college to play professionally. But it's growing. There are a lot of International players in the Men's college game. P4 etc....doesn't matter to them. Women have growing numbers of international college players, but again, it's far behind the Men. But that too is starting to grow.

Another thing you'll notice with some of the Olympic Sports, is that elite academic schools often have good programs. Also, the landscape keeps changing as previously Women's Soccer had 14 scholarships and Men's Soccer had 9.9. To get around this, academic scholarships and other financial assistance are common. That's no longer the case. Teams can offer a full athletic scholarship to every player. But there is now a roster limit of 28 for both Men and Women. Even top programs won't fill all pf those, but too programs are expected to have as many as  20 full athletic scholarships per team. Also, the transfer portal is a factor. The first question high level players have is how much NIL money do you have for me?

[GB Warrior]

I'm asking Tommy Tuberville...will let you know what I learn.

Update on this... he mentioned that some teams really struggle with transition defense

[TSmith34, Inc.]

Update on this... he mentioned that some teams really struggle with transition defense

Whole teams, all at once, according to Tommy.