Dayo Olopade's analysis made sense to me, although I agree that it's "not terribly well-reasoned." But I'm not sure that it qualified as "provocative."

But it was somewhat disappointing that she barely touched on the idea that for women's sports to be more than a sexy sideshow, perhaps the audience should be more, well, female. While "dudes" may be "subliminally accustomed to a little tittilation with their sports fix," this seems like an odd reason for other women to not bother to tune in or park in a seat. Somehow, I doubt that changing the uniform to sports bras and tight shorts would inspire Ms. Olopade to fill out the women's bracket next year.

Ms. Olopade's piece starts out with her admission that she isn't terribly interested in women's college basketball, but then it veers into a jab at male sexism and desire for tittilation. Let's hear more about why women themselves don't pack the stands at women's sporting events. Surely they have better reasons than not seeing enough skin in the game.

You might start by askin why anyone watches sports? It's more than a little bit odd that some people (mostly men) will literally devote the majority of their free time and mental energy to watching other men throwing leather balls -- a game for which non-gambling fans have absolutely no concrete stakes in the outcome. My guess is that this has something to do with fantasy fulfillment (this is pretty obvious with "fantasy" leagues, with children who emulate sports starts, and I would think it applies to other fans as well). Maybe a lot of guys like to see themselves as quarterback, b-ball star, etc.

Perhaps women don't fantasize as much about contact competition, and so they don't see a point in watching other people indulge in this actitivity. If this is true, there is no point in hand-wringing about female fans and female sports. Would it really be so awful if women didn't enjoy this bizarre pastime? By all logic, this would make women more rational.

"Would it really be so awful if women didn't enjoy this bizarre pastime?"

Not at all. But if the survival of women's sports depends on male viewership, and men watch sports for a sense of fantasy fulfillment, then it looks like successful women's sports are going to have to fulfill men's fantasies. That could get ugly. (Well, not in a literal sense...)

BTW - congrats on being quoted in the blog, Tradbert.

During my time as an undergrad at Baylor University, I actually experienced the opposite scenario: our women's basketball team enjoyed greater popularity and higher attendance at games than our men's team. Granted this probably had a lot to do with the scandal the summer before my freshman year and the subsequent sanctions that caused the men's team to have to go through a huge rebuilding effort...but it had even more to do with the fact that the women's team was just really good. They won the national championship in 2005 and the outporing of excitement from the student body, men and women, was as big, I think, as it would have been for the men's team in the same situation. Basically, what Baylor's situation showed me is that when a women's team doesn't have to live in the shadow of the men's team, fans regardless of their gender will come out to watch and support them. It's amazing what simply having a winning team will do for fan support :)

Lyger:

Ms. Olopade's piece starts out with her admission that she isn't terribly interested in women's college basketball, but then it veers into a jab at male sexism and desire for tittilation.

Not only did she make that jab, which was convoluted and a little sexist, but she did it right after comparing women's b-ball to women's golf, and declaring that basketball came up short! While I never watch women's golf (or men's golf, for that matter), I think it would have come to attention if female golfers were teeing off in string bikinis. If they don't show anymore skin than female b-ball players, then there must be another reason that women's golf (supposedly) gets more attention than women's b-ball.

I would disagree with the statement about fantasy fulfillment. Most men know they aren't going to be professional athletes. I'm a fan of women's and men's basketball. I was lucky b/c I was exposed to quality female play at a young age and developed an affinity for it. I've enjoyed women's college bball tournaments just as much as the men's tournaments that I have attended. People don't fill out women's brackets b/c there is no betting interest in women's basketball. Brackets are about betting; fantasy leagues are as well. In this case they are gambling on individual performances as opposed to team performance.

"It's more than a little bit odd that some people (mostly men) will literally devote the majority of their free time and mental energy to watching other men throwing leather balls -- a game for which non-gambling fans have absolutely no concrete stakes in the outcome "

Let me rephrase the above statement in a way that a lot of men can relate to:

"It's more than a little bit odd that some people (mostly women) will literally devote the majority of their free time and mental energy to watching other women decorate their homes (HGTV) -- a process for which no one other the homeowners have absolutely no concrete stakes in the outcome"

ESPN:males::HGTV:females

"ESPN:males::HGTV:females

Both = Huge waste of time.

I just don't get it...and people actually pay money, real money, to sit and watch others do boring things. Just weird.

Different people are interested in different things. If a person wants to spend their time watching sports or home decorating it's their business. What is boring to you may be exciting to others. People usually use the word 'weird' and 'boring' to describe things they don't understand. In that case I would suggest developing a sense of empathy and appreciation for things you don't like instead of using insults to belittle others interests