It’s interesting that the men’s Final Four and championship game are both behind paywalls while the women’s championship game will be over the air on ABC (and ESPN). The audience for the Iowa-South Carolina game is going to blow away the audience for the men’s final. The numbers will be nowhere near close.

If there ever was a year where the NCAA should have made the effort to bring parity to the apps for the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, this was the year. What a lost opportunity! The image on the left is the women’s iOS app, and the image on the right is the men’s iOS app. You’ll see that the women’s app lacks support for iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS. Why?

From a product perspective, I would argue that there is no need for two apps at all. Men’s and women’s college basketball games have no differences whatsoever. It’s time for the NCAA to consolidate their separate technology budgets to make one great March Madness experience for all fans.

The Chicago Bears radio broadcast is almost unlistenable with Tom Thayer as the color commentator. Of course, I understand how disappointing the Bears are and have been for some time, but Thayer’s constant negativity makes this even worse.

Need a great example of a passionate former player broadcasting for a struggling team, go back and listen to replays of the great Ron Santo. He wore his heart on his sleeve, and you could feel his heart break when things weren’t going well for the Cubs, but you never felt negativity like the kind that flows from Thayer’s mouth.

It’s time for a change.