Opinion: Lady Vols Top 25 exit good for women's basketball

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The phrase “all good things come to an end” took another victim this past Monday.

For the first time since 1985, the Tennessee Lady Vols were nowhere to be found in the AP Top 25. Over the course of those 565 consecutive weeks, the Lady Vols won eight national championships and appeared in 16 final fours.

Tennessee’s legacy is untouched in women’s athletics. Thanks to legendary head coach Pat Summit and an assortment of basketball icons, the Lady Vols were instrumental in the rising popularity of women’s athletics.

But recent times have been rocky on Rocky Top. The program has not reached the final four since 2008, the last year it won a national championship. This season has been particularly difficult. Head coach Holly Warlick has been under fire for the team’s 16-11 overall record and program-record seven SEC losses.

To say Vol Nation is feeling somber about the current state of the program would be an understatement. However, fans of women’s college basketball should high-five Tennessee out the Top-25 door because the Lady Vols’ exit is good for the sport.

It is unfortunate that the Lady Vols have to be the pawn, but the demise of a program of this stature is a necessary sacrifice. Would anybody care if South Carolina fell out of the Top 25? Absolutely not. In fact, South Carolina’s ascendence to the top of the SEC is also great for women’s basketball.

Why? Because the sport lacks an essential quality that makes any sport so captivating: Parity.

Fans of other sports grow weary of dynasties. They get bored with the same team winning every year. For example, the New England Patriots have appeared in 10 AFC Championship Games and six Super Bowls since 2001. LeBron James, whether with the Miami Heat or Cleveland Cavaliers, has led his team to an Eastern Conference Finals title and NBA Finals appearance for five straight seasons. The San Francisco Giants have won three of the last five World Series. The Chicago Blackhawks and Los Angeles Kings have won the last four Stanley Cups.

Those streaks pale in comparison to the dynasties of women’s college basketball. Since 1995, 15 of the 21 championships have belonged to either Tennessee or UConn. Compare that to men’s college hoops, where 12 different programs have won a championship since 1995, and no program has more than three championships in that span.

Even the battle for second place lacks parity in women’s hoops. The Notre Dame Lady Fighting Irish have appeared in four of the last five national championships. They have lost all four times.

Women’s basketball has simply grown stagnant. Entering this season, nobody was asking who the champions would be. Everybody knows that UConn is going to capture its fourth consecutive championship and eleventh overall since 1995. The actual battle is for second place.

When a sport becomes so predictable, people eventually lose interest. What makes the NFL so exciting is proven through last year’s Super Bowl. Did anybody see the Denver Broncos taking on the Carolina Panthers? Probably not, considering the circumstances surrounding both teams in the offseason. But they defied the odds, took unique paths, and played for a championship. This never happens in women’s basketball.

So, Tennessee fans, what is so positive about the Lady Vols’ downward spiral? My hunch is that the program will continue to lose races for top recruits. With recruits spread out evenly instead of going to two programs, there will be a time when even UConn begins to slip, and its demise will be just as good for the sport.

Tennessee will bounce back. The program has too much tradition and support behind it not to compete. The Lady Vols are a lock to make the NCAA Tournament thanks to their difficult schedule. What if they happen to make a run? Imagine the headline:

“Falling Giant Dethrones the King and Takes back Crown.”

This kind of run is desperately needed. Fans do not watch sports because of championships. They watch sports because of the path to championships. They want to witness the drama, the cinderella stories, the interesting characters, the buzzer beaters, and the emotion.

All good things come to an end, but that ending could be the start of something even more exciting.

Featured image by Wade Rackley

Edited by Cody McClure