Our fearless podcaster, Pepper Persley, has returned with her latest episode: a preview of the NCAA Tournament.
Pepper breaks down the key stories she is keeping an eye on throughout the tournament, and she discusses that all with The Next Editor-in-Chief Howard Megdal.
Pepper and Howard began their discussion with a conversation surrounding equality and how it relates to the NCAA Tournament:
“I think it’s vital,” Megdal said, on the topic of the NCAA using March Madness in women’s tournament branding. “Being able to have equivalent branding makes a difference in terms of how financially lucrative the women’s tournament is.”
“There has been this ridiculous talking point, for the longest time, that women’s basketball is not a money-making sport. But it’s not a money-making sport in the sense that the powers that be are setting it up not to be.”
Pepper also asked Howard about which teams had the most surprising seeding:
“Villanova at an 11 I thought was a little strange. I heard some people talking about Villanova not making the tournament, which I thought was ridiculous. They had some bad losses early in the year while Maddy Siegrist wasn’t healthy … To get to the [Big East] final, and to be that legit No. 2 in the Big East, 11 seems low.”
“Princeton at an 11 should have been a single-digit seed and Florida Gulf Coast at a 12 … I think FGCU and Karl Smesko consistently gets ignored.”
Enjoy Pepper’s latest podcast episode previewing the tournament.
