Women's sports momentum 'under threat' from changing college landscape, WSF study says

NEW YORK, Sept 30 : Deteriorating conditions in women's college sport could threaten momentum in the professional sector, according to a Women's Sports Foundation study released on Wednesday, as North American leagues enjoy a surge of popularity.

Both the WNBA and NWSL have moved quickly to add teams amid increased viewership, attendance and commercial opportunities, while the Professional Women's Hockey League enters its fourth season with broadcast deals in Canada and the United States.

But experts warned that weakened Title IX enforcement as well as potential new inequities in resources could lead to a decline in opportunities for women in college sports, a key training ground for an overwhelming number of women's pro athletes in North America.

"This is a significant part of the pipeline. It is one that is under threat because of the changing landscape in college sports that is both an economic challenge and a regulation challenge and more. And we need to be paying attention to it," said Danette Leighton, CEO of the Women's Sports Foundation.

The study surveyed a panel of 60 senior leaders across women's sport, including league and team executives, conference commissioners and national governing body leaders. 

EQUAL FUNDING LAW

Nearly half of them identified rollbacks and weakened enforcement of Title IX - a more than 50-year-old law requiring equal funding of US education programs - as the biggest risk to progress.

Name, image and likeness (NIL) rules, which allowed college athletes to be paid after a 2021 Supreme Court ruling, have further complicated the outlook.

"NIL is the headline in the changing landscape of college sports, but underneath it is an antiquated economic model that's now buckling under pressure from every