Kentucky is playing its part in the growth of women’s college volleyball
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- ESPN reports major viewership gains for women's college volleyball this season.
- ESPN placed early NCAA tournament rounds on subscription-only ESPN+, limiting exposure.
- Coaches and data argue linear TV access would expand fanbase and advertiser reach.
In a Dec. 5 news release, ESPN’s public-relations team touted the growth of women’s college volleyball on its networks.
The sport had “scored its best regular season,” in the history of ESPN networks, the release said. A 36% increase in viewership from the 2024 regular season. A 59% increase in viewers aged 18-34 and a 41% increase in viewers identified as female
The release also highlighted that ESPN this season had aired four of its five most-watched NCAA regular-season volleyball matches ever, including a top-10 duel between Nebraska and Kentucky that drew 1.2 million viewers to ABC on Aug. 31.
By most any metric, women’s college volleyball is rapidly growing, both in popularity and in parity.
And yet, broadcast access remains limited.
ESPN retains the broadcast rights to the NCAA Volleyball Championship, and — just as it did last season, and for several seasons prior — opted to air the first two rounds of this year’s tournament on subscription-only streamer ESPN+. This despite ESPN’s self-reported 6% engagement increase from the 2023 to 2024 first- and second-round NCAA Tournament matches.
It’s important to note that the sport’s broadcasting rights were negotiated in a package containing 40 total NCAA championships. The deal between ESPN and the NCAA, which also contains the heavily criticized broadcast rights to the women’s basketball tournament, was renewed in 2024.
Longtime Wisconsin volleyball coach and 2021 NCAA champion Kelly Sheffield called it “a damn shame” that ESPN chose to put the first two rounds on ESPN+ and adding that he’ll “go to my grave saying you cannot get newer fans to follow anything if it’s not on linear TV.”
“Some sports, you are lifted up by being clumped in with other sports,” Sheffield said. “And then I think there’s some other sports that are being held back, and that’s certainly where we are. The momentum of the season comes to a screeching halt.”
Following this season’s second-round match between No. 1 Kentucky and No. 8 UCLA, both coaches were asked their thoughts on the subject. UCLA head coach Alfee Reft politely declined to answer, but UK’s Craig Skinner shared sentiments similar to Sheffield’s.
“I don’t see why our sport doesn’t deserve the opportunity to be on linear TV for this,” Skinner said. “I mean, it’s the best event in college sports, the NCAA Tournament. I mean, obviously men’s basketball has proven it, women’s basketball success has been key and ours is no different. I mean, the numbers are off the charts. I don’t think there’s any reason why we wouldn’t have more viewers and more potential advertising in matches like this than what’s showing on it right now. I have no idea what it’s showing, so I think our sport deserves that opportunity, and we need to keep fighting for it.”
A quick look through ESPN’s programming on Dec. 4-6 — on affiliate linear channels ABC, ESPN and ESPN2, each of which have and will air either the Sweet 16, Elite Eight, Final Four or national championship matches, and also the SEC Network — reveals broadcasts of the women’s basketball ACC/SEC Challenge, Kentucky men’s basketball’s Music City Madness game against Gonzaga and a host of regular ESPN shows such as NFL Live, College Football Live, SportsCenter and Pardon The Interruption airing in time slots when volleyball matches were being streamed on ESPN+.
ESPN’s reported engagement and viewership statistics demonstrate the increasing popularity of women’s college volleyball, but a local look at the Lexington Regional in this year’s NCAA Volleyball Championship, and its illustration of parity in the game, further emphasizes the growth of the sport.
In Thursday’s match between UK and Cal Poly, Big Blue Nation bore witness to a Regional Semifinal which set the second-overall-ranked team in the country against a “Cinderella” program which secured its spot in the NCAA Championship by winning the Big West Tournament title.
The Mustangs upset No. 5 BYU in the first round band No. 4 Southern California in the second round to earn their place in the Sweet 16. Skinner said the introduction of volleyball to young athletes across the United States has created the ability to “go to any state and find elite players.”
“All the programs in the country can’t see all the other players in other states,” Skinner said. “And so you can find players in your region that can help you beat any team in the country. California has been established as a volleyball state since the beginning and Cal Poly has a history of success, but I think it just starts the number of quality athletes playing our game is everywhere. If you work you can build a championship team and program, and Cal Poly’s done a really good job of that.”
He also highlighted what would become the Wildcats’ Elite Eight opponent, Creighton, as an example of the power of “grassroots volleyball.”
“Creighton, who comes from a state of great volleyball talent at the younger ages, has fostered that for years,” Skinner said. “And there’s several examples of that. So I think it’s just a sheer number of great players playing our sport, starting probably at 12 and unders on up.”
Skinner, who played volleyball for Ball State in the early 90s, became an assistant coach in 1994, working with historic women’s programs like Wisconsin and Nebraska before taking the head job in Lexington.
Elite volleyball, specifically at the women’s collegiate level, was best represented by West Coast schools. Southern California, Hawaii, UCLA and Pacific made up the first NCAA Tournament champions. Not until Mick Haley’s 1988 Texas Longhorns did a school east of California hoist the trophy.
It was a blip at first.
But Nebraska finished as national runner-up in 1986 and 1989 and broke through in 1995, winning its first-ever NCAA volleyball title under coach Terry Pettit.
By the late-2000s, coaches such as Russ Rose at Penn State and John Cook at Nebraska, were finding incredible levels of national success. Skinner described the “boom” of volleyball, spreading to Chicago, then the Kansas City area — the home of UK outside hitter Brooklyn DeLeye — and further east.
Grassroots organizations, local clubs and high school programs, all seeking to grow the sport.
“And then, I think, when young people start playing the game, it’s a very competitive sport,” Skinner said. “But it’s also a social sport. You like being with your team. You like being in a small, confined space with other people like you. And it’s a celebratory sport all the time, 24/7.
What once was a consistent battle between many of the same names and faces has become a national phenomenon, besting broadcast viewership year by year and featuring new challengers who defy odds or expectations.
The growth of the game, Skinner said, is a testament to the dedication of coaches and athletes who found their way to volleyball and did their best to grow it, simply because “once they start playing they typically play it for a long time in their life.”
“I think it just has an engagement about it that people don’t want to get away from once they fall in love with the sport,” Skinner said.
Fans will have one last opportunity in Lexington to fall in love with the sport Saturday at 5 p.m. ET when Kentucky and Creighton tip off with a Final Four trip on the line.
The match will be broadcast on ESPN2. The national semifinal matches will be broadcast Dec. 18 (TV designations TBA) and the national championship will be broadcast Dec. 21 at 3:30 p.m. on ABC.
