With March Madness finally here, we spoke with Terése Whitehead and Kim DeCarolis, who lead NIL and commercial strategy at Michigan and Georgia, respectively. Both are embedded on campus through their work with Altius Sports Partners, which launched in 2020 and has quickly become a leading strategic advisor for college athletic departments.

This week, the Bank of America Institute — the bank’s internal think tank that analyzes consumer behaviors and trends from customer data — shared insights into how customers are engaging around women’s sports. The data supports trends we’ve seen, with these new numbers further strengthening the business case for women’s sports. Let’s dive in.

Last week, Nielsen shared impressive statistics illustrating the growth of women’s sports U.S. viewership in 2025 across many disciplines and audiences. SponsorUnited also shared its own YoY data on trends in women’s sports investment, spanning leagues and industries.

Yesterday, Parity followed up its recent report on the Olympics with one about fan interest in the Paralympics, which officially kick off tomorrow. Parity’s data illustrates how those who are fans of the Paralympics and women’s sports — spaces where equity is front and center — are excited about Para women athletes and are very aware of brands in the space.

This week, StubHub launched HerSportsHub, the first dedicated place for reselling tickets to women’s sports events. The platform will include access to WNBA, NWSL, PWHL, and NCAA women’s basketball games, aligning with StubHub’s latest data-driven insights on how fandom is surging across these sectors.

Last week, the NWSL’s Portland Thorns and the WNBA’s Portland Fire announced that the organizations — both owned by the Bhathal family — will create a local women’s sports channel in Portland, OR, to showcase content from both teams on Fox 12 Plus. The Fire are also partnering with streaming platform Kiswe to create a dedicated team app.

In December 2024, girls empowerment brand Rebel Girls entered the sports chat for the first time, making a splash through partnerships with two emerging women’s sports leagues: LOVB and AUSL. Rebel Girls saw its audience of Gen Alpha girls organically respond to its sports-centric content, so the brand leaned in. Over a year later, Rebel Girls is going even deeper into the sports world. Rebel Girls announced four new sports-inspired series this week, while also naming 14-year-old Pepper Persley as its first-ever brand ambassador and Emma May-Bradley as chief content and marketing officer.

Things happen fast when you’re rapper Flavor Flav. The ‘90s icon is known for his avid women’s sports fandom after supporting athletes during Paris 2024. Initially a fan of the Team USA women’s water polo team, Flav extended his endorsement to many more athletes, and the same happened at the Winter Olympics.

Let’s be clear: Advertisers do portray mothers across advertising, more so than women without children. But the standard portrayal features mothers as caretakers engrossed in domestic tasks and has changed little since the 1950s.