Progress or Product: Capitalism and the Illusion of Change in NCAA Women’s Basketball

Collegiate sport policy and practice reflect dominant capitalist and patriarchal values. Within these larger economic and social systems, sport has evolved primarily as a hegemonic, male space. The result is a narrow scope of athletic success determined in large part by athlete marketability. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), Title IX, and Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) all serve normative social interests and exclude athletes with intersectional identities under the guise of inclusive progress. There is a need for critical engagement with sports media and policy to seek true inclusion in sport and challenge the narrative of the “ideal” athlete. In our analysis of NCAA women’s collegiate basketball, we examine the integration of sport within capitalist, patriarchal systems, and the real consequences of those influences on female collegiate athletes with marginalized identities.