Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're wondering if Simone Augustus is still holding out her hands for that clipboard. If you didn't see the Kim Maulky temper tantrum moment from the weekend, we'll link tu ite in
our show notes. It's Tuesday, February fourth. Then on today's show will be chatting with Boys and Sports Steph Strack and Wisconsin cross country and track athlete Maggie Munson about the bill they're reintroducing in Congress this week, what it takes to fight for Title LAIN enforcement, and how you can help support the changes they're fighting for. Plus Oklahoma Softball goes national, the start of a new franchise player era, and the potential return of a comment It's all coming
up right after this Welcome back slices. Here's what you need to know today to the WNBA, the ownership group of the Philadelphia seventy six ers of the MNBA has submitted a bid to bring a WNBA team to the city. We've heard a lot of rumblings of a potential Philly WNBA team in the last year. Made it official, and that's not all folks. The Athletic also reported that the
owner of the Houston Rockets has submitted a bid. It's shaping up to be a competitive contest for the league's sixteenth team, with Nashville, Detroit, Charlotte, Austin, and Denver also in the conversation, WNBA is already expanding to the Bay Area this year and Toronto and Portland in twenty twenty six. To soccer and the continued fallout following Spain's twenty twenty three World Cup win, the trial for former Spain football
boss Luis Rubialis began on Monday. He faces up to four years in prison if he's found guilty of assault and coercion. On the first day of the trial, World Cup winner Jenny Hermoso testified, saying that she did not consent to the kiss that is at the center of the charges. Quote. I think it was a moment that tainted one of the happiest days of my life end quote.
The judges also indicated that former Spain women's coach and current Morocco coach Jorge Wilda, along with other Federation officials, should stand trial for their role in pressuring Hermoso to defend us following the World Cup. The trial is expected to last through February nineteenth. Will keep you updated as
it progresses to softball. USA Softball announced on Monday that Patty Gasso has been named head coach of the national team for the twenty twenty five to twenty twenty eight quadrennal that, of course, includes the twenty twenty eight Los Angeles Olympics. While Gaso is the seventh woman to lead the US softball national team at any time, she will become the first female head coach of the US Olympic team. Gaso has been head coach of the University of Oklahoma
team for thirty seasons, winning eight national titles. She'll continue in that role while balancing her new Team USA responsibilities. Also worth remembering, Oklahoma's Devin Park, which is the host of the College World Series every year, will also be the site of the twenty twenty eight Olympic Tournament. In athletes in limited news, AU Pro Hoops Season four starts
tomorrow after season three in Dallas, Texas. This year's four week stretch of five on five Runs will take place in Nashville, Tennessee for the first time, and there's a new way to tune in on opening night, five bars across the country are hosting Watchpark for fans. Participating bars include watch Me Sports Bar in Long Beach, California, the Sports Bra in Portland, Oregon, Rough and Tumble in Seattle, Washington, the ninety nine Ers Sports Bar in Denver, Colorado, and
a bar of their own in Minneapolis, Minnesota. There are two games on opening night, tipping off at six pm and eight thirty pm Eastern. So if you're in any of those cities I just listed, go catch the action with some friends, and if you don't have any friends to go with, go make some new ones. AU's post about the watch parties includes addresses for the five bars, so we'll link to that in our show notes, and
we'll link to the full AU Pro Hoops schedule. All right, y'all, we're still recovering from those huge WNBA free agency moves over the weekend, but with the dust settling a bit, we wanted to share a wild stat with all of you, so producer Alex called in some help from across the timeline for this one. We were curious, with so many franchise players on the move, which WNBA player has now
been with the same team for the longest time. The name at the top of that list since Sue Byrd retired is Diana Tarassi, who's played for the fe Mercury since getting drafted in two thousand and four, meaning that Gal's been wearing purple and orange since this year's draft class was wearing diapers. If DT comes back, she'll stay on top, but if she retires, here's where it gets interesting.
So up until last week, the next names on the list were, in order, Britney Griner, who'd been with the Mercury since twenty thirteen, Alyssa Thomas who'd been with the Sun since twenty fourteen, Jewel Lloyd with the Storm since twenty fifteen, Kelsey Plum with the Aces since twenty seventeen, and Brianna Jones who'd been with the Sun also since twenty seventeen. You might remember from our free agency recap, all five of those franchise players are moving on to
new teams. And then there's a Lena Deladon. This is an interesting one. She's been loyal to the Mystics since twenty seventeen, but she's missed a bunch of seasons, so her availability has been inconsistent. And then she skipped last season with no word yet on whether she plans to come back. So who's the current planning to play this year?
Longest tenured player at one team. That brings us to the new guard of franchise players Indiana's Kelsey Mitchell, Las Vegas Is Asia Wilson, Washington's Ariel Atkins, and Seattle's Mercedes Russell, who have all been with their current team since twenty eighteen. Now, Russell is technically a free agent, but the other three of all signed contracts that will bring them back for
an eighth straight season this year. So congrats on that achievement, Asia, Kelsey, and Ariel and maybe Mercedes, unless, of course, DT comes back, and then we'll see you back here in another decade or two. Shout out to across the timeline for the assist on this one. If you don't already follow them on all of the platforms, what are you waiting for? We'll link to their accounts in the show notes. We're
going to take a quick break. When we come back, we chat with Stephan Maggie about how to call out title nine BS stick around joining us now. She's the founder and CEO of Voice in Sport, a digital platform keeping girls and women in sport and elevating their voices and the Voice in Sport Foundation, a global nonprofit supercharging
sports science and research and advocating for equality. She has over eighteen years of experience at the intersection of sports, lifestyle and technology, spending fourteen plus years at Nike and some time at Rag and Bone, where she served as a board member and CEO. Over the last few years, she and the Viz Advocates, a group of young women in high school and college, have tackled Title nine reform
and successfully become a leading voice on Capitol Hill. Her commutes to DC are long because she lives in Alaska. It's Steph Strack and joining her. She's a track and cross country athlete at Wisconsin, running the six hundred meters eight hundred meters mile on steeplechase and the five and six k and cross. A five time academic All Big Ten honoree, and UW Voice and Sport Chapter President. She cliff dives bike rides and speaks on Capitol Hill. It's
Maggie Munson. Hey, Maggie, Hi, thank you so much for having me. Maggie, what's the six hundred meters We didn't have that in my day.
Oh well, that's an indoor only event for the big ten. So if you're on a two hundred meter track, it's three laps and it's basically an all out four hundred and then you keep going for another two hundred.
No thank you. I was a college track athlete and I'm like, I don't know what the hell the six hundred meters is, but congrats to you, and no, thank you that one. Thanks so much for joining. I want to start local and then get national. So let's get to Wisconsin. Maggie. University of Wisconsin recently celebrated fifty years of women's track and field, one of the most successful programs on campus, but now there's potential Title nine compliance issues.
There's a proposal for a two hundred and eighty five million dollar Camp Randall Sports Center redevelopment project, and in the original letter of intent from the university, they promised that they would deliver facilities for track and field and cross country on par with the peer institutions. But the current plans are definitely prioritizing the football team and not giving equitable training and competition resources to track and field and cross country. So tell us how you first heard
about this project and how it's affecting your team. Yeah.
Absolutely. So we used to practice in an indoor track. It was a two hundred meter track and we called it the Shell. And we've known for years that the shell was going to be torn down. It was over seventy years old, getting pretty dusty, and it didn't hold up compared to incredible indoor facilities at Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and so we knew that we were going to get a new indoor track, but what the university is currently
offering would actually be a step back. The track that they're proposing is not intended to be a competition venue, and we've been hosting our home meets in Chicago, so it's about a three hour drive from campus to home meet. We lose out on a lot of those hometown supporters. And the proposed facility also would not offer spaces for high jump and pole vault, and offering no facilities for events that we sponsor and the ones that we are
good at. We just had a heptathlete win the Big Ten title and high jump is a part of that and I think that it's a shame to decrease those facilities and elevate those for football when we have a proven record of success.
Yeah, your facility was already demolished. So where are you practicing now?
Yeah, so it was torn down in early fall, and we did not have anywhere to go up to the end of last semester. And Wisconsin gets pretty cold in the winter. As a distance runner, we can run outside, but sprinters in twenty degrees is just not feasible.
That's not long jarp in frozen sand, right.
Exactly, exactly, So we do. We were practicing at University of Wisconsin Whitewater, which is about forty five minutes away, for the first few weeks of January, and then our alums graciously donated a warehouse facility in Lodi, Wisconsin, which is forty minutes from campus. We have a good setup in there, but I mean, it's not ideal to have to travel forty minutes each way in the middle of a busy semester.
Not at all. And I'm looking at the planned new track the drawing of it. It's a recreational running path above a football field. It's what you'd get at a gym in a city where there isn't enough space. So they're stacking things on top of each other. That's not remotely a facility that you could practice in. Is that what they're showing you as the ultimate end goal for what you guys would use.
As of right now?
Yes, I want everyone to picture this. It's literally like one of those things that race walkers or like old people get their laps in and get their steps in along the top of something that it doesn't have anything in the middle. It's just like a balcony basically overlooking a field where the football players would get all the
good stuff. This is like so infuriating. So Steph, beyond this, which we know is not okay, can you tell us what data you have to back up your argument that Wisconsin might be in violation in other ways of Title nine?
Yeah?
Absolutely.
Unfortunately, this is not just a local issue at the University of Wisconsin. This is a national issue that we're seeing across all of our chapters at Voice and Sport, and it's why we've written the Fair Play for Women Act is really to try to get after the real issues that women are facing at college institutions, and Wisconsin's a great example. She's talking about equitable treatment across facilities which is one thing we look at when we're looking
at Title nine and Title nine violations. But the other areas. The other two areas are around participation opportunities for women athletes at schools, and there needs to be proportional participation opportunities for girls and boys. And the second is scholarship opportunities and that needs to be proportionally equitable for girls and boys. So unfortunately, when we look at the EADA data, which is public, anybody can go look up their school.
Which is Equity and Athletics Disclosure, right.
You can go to the website, you can look up your school. You can calculate your numbers, and although it's not used for titleline compliance, you can get a good idea of whther or not your school is likely in a violation or not. So Maggie can speak to the exact numbers here for Wisconsin, but both on the participation and scholarship side show that there is a gap for girls and women in sport at Wisconsin.
Yeah, so what you're speaking to is this basically three pillar system. To be in compliance with Title nine, you have to adhere to the three components. Accommodating student interest, which is opportunities to participate, proportional financial assistance, which is scholarships and things like that, and then equal benefits and opportunities. So tell us, Maggie, what we know about the scholarship dollars and the participation opportunities at Wisconsin. Yeah.
So the most recent data we have is from the twenty twenty two to twenty twenty three school year, and that shows a deficit of fifty three roster spots for women and a loss of seven hundred and thirty eight thousand scholarship dollars. And that's just in that one year. So if you have seven hundred thirty eight thousand one year, think of that, multiply the cross year after year.
Yeah, and just to remind people, Title nine is a law, but that doesn't mean everyone's following it. It is, in fact, very hard to get places to comply. During the fiftieth anniversary just a couple of years ago, there are these celebrations, but ultimately what it did is cause a lot of us to dive deeper into the numbers and be like, well, shit, we're fifty years in and we're not even close to
this being adhered too. So, Maggie, we know Title nine compliance is willful and the only real way to get the Department of Education to recognize, see and then act when schools are not abiding by the law is basically to sue them or threaten to sue. So is that your planner or are you trying other avenues to try to work with the school.
I am working with the Wisconsin Athletic Department, and I want them to be able to choose the right decision and advocate for women. But I also am very committed to doing what it takes to ensure that title mine is followed.
God, that was the most badass threat I've ever heard, so like nice and gentle, I would love for them. They have the opportunity to choose to not f around in find out, but I'm willing for that to happen. Steph. There's a petition to hold the university accountable to revise their current building plans. It has over six thousand signatures already. Have you been able to or has anyone been able to engage in meaningful conversations with the school or the stakeholders of this project.
Yeah?
Absolutely, you know they have been open to conversations, and that really is the point of the VIZ Advocate program. Maggie's the president, She's gathered her club and her chapter members, and we have had and held a meeting with the Athletic Department and the Athletic Director in that that conversation was a very open conversation where we walked through the gaps that we feel like we are seeing and the
potential violations of Title nine. And we've asked for a second meeting to go through the data that they've found. They have brought in a third third party that last year to evaluate how they are as a school, and we would love to see that data and that's what we've asked for next, you know, and this is why
we've built the program, is like, let's have conversation. Let's put the data in front of the leaders that are making those decisions and ask them to make a different decision, so we'll see, as Maggie says, is what happens.
Or at least have proof that they knowingly made the decision with full understanding of the impact that it would have on other student athletes. They can't play dumb if you force them to look at the plans that they've made and the outcome it will have Maggie, does it feel like if this moves forward as is, this will ultimately amount to asking the team to compete with lesser facilities and resources, or that it's actually a step toward getting rid of the program altogether.
You know, that's one thing that a lot of alumni and stakeholders are fearful of, and it would be a big shame, especially for the running community in Madison. We have a really engaged group of runners and fans in the city of Madison who have supported us for years
that we've had the team. We've won numerous Big Ten titles, titles, we have so many Olympians, we have a really rich winning tradition and making do with less is something we could do, but it's going to cause the downfall of our success and it's something that we shouldn't have to do.
Yeah, I'm your head coach. Ed Nuttycombe, which is a great name, has been a twenty six time Big Ten Coach of the Year. Like, this is a great program that has had a ton of success. So it's not new, it's not up and coming. It's something that has brought so much prestige to the school. So the idea that they would be willing to so callously throw you into a warehouse forty minutes away without a bigger plan really says something about how much they prioritize things like football
over over track and field. You know, track and field is one of the few sports where men and women participate together. We're very intertwined, practice together, air coaches, travel, compete together. Have you seen this treatment of other sports at the school, particularly women's only sports like field hockey or spaces where they're separate or does it feel like you just happen to get this the brunt of this because of the facility you were in.
I mean, I would say that all non revenue sports are definitely feeling a pinch. I mean, the women's and men's cross country and track teams are obviously disappointed. We're
a very intertwined team. We hang out all the time in practice, outside of practice, and yeah, there are other sports that are certainly feeling the tin shows budget cuts, especially amidst this changing and disable a Our women's Kinnis team only just got their own locker room last year, So yeah, I would say that there are other sports that are affected, but the track team has done a good job of banning together.
Yeah, to demand better. My collegiate team, it felt like the men and women were treated equally on the track team. Does it feel that way to you or is it ever feel like the men's side gets better resources or treatment or anything.
Oh, I would say that we are all one as.
A track team. That's good. Okay, stuff zooming out. So we have this individual situation at Wisconsin that clearly needs to be remedied, but it's part of a larger issue which I spoke to, which is that Title nine is a is a law and name, but not often enough in practice. So you're reintroducing a bill that relates to Title nine, but is a bigger picture look at how we're treating female athletes. It's called the Fair Play for
Women Act. You're reintroducing it on February fifth in DC with Senator Chris Murphy and over two hundred and fifty women athletes and VIZ advocates. So tell us why it's a reintroduction and tell us what the bill is asking for.
Yeah, this is one thing that I've learned a lot over the last few years. Policy takes time. On average, a bill can be three to five years past. So's we're in it for the long run, and the more voices that we have at the table at Capitol Hill, the stronger we're going to be as a collective. But when you really take a step back, the Fair Play for Women Act is really trying to address the real issues that girls and women are facing across the country.
And those real issues right now are lack of education around Title nine, lack of enforcement of schools when they're not in compliance, and then lack of data transparency. So like those three pillars are the Fair Play for Women Act, and the goal is really to make sure that there's less discrimination against women in public institution around sports. And if you just look at the Government Office of Accountability,
so they did a study. They looked at all of the NCAA schools and found that ninety three percent of the schools are offering fewer opportunities to women. So while Maggie's experience is not good, it's unfortunately pretty standard and that's why we have to get at the roots of the problem and really get after introducing the Fair Play
for Women Act. So not much has changed in this reintroduction, but we're working on bringing in more sponsors and getting more momentum behind the bill, and it's really really important right now because the House a couple of weeks ago actually passed another bill, and that bill kind of goes under the name of protecting girls and women in sport.
It's HR twenty eight, and this offers another opportunity for people to really protect girls and women with the real issues, an anti trans bill, which is HR twenty eight.
Yeah, let's talk about that. You talked about how hard it is to get bills through, and yet all of a sudden, we very quickly are able to pass through something to address what is alleged to be about ten athletes out of five hundred thousand at the NCAA level. That bill, of course addresses K through twelve as well, but it doesn't feel like and it has never been the biggest issue for women's sports. There are countless other issues that we for decades and decades have been demanding
a response to and has gone sort of unheard. So when you're talking to lawmakers, when we're having conversations with folks to try to explain the importance of the Fair Play for Women Act, how often do you have to sort of refocus them on the real issue and how much is it about whether they care about the issue or whether they're using some sort of bill or policy for political gain.
Well, I absolutely think that HR. Twenty eight is not a bill that is actually protecting girls and women in sports. So to be clear that that is seeking to amend Title NIINN to define sex based solely on an individual's reproductive biology and genetics at birth. It's not getting after all, the issues we just spent twenty minutes talking about, which are the real issues that young girls are facing in
public institution around sport. Right, So I think that unfortunately it's that bill is being used in a way that is not appropriate for really the issues that all these girls are facing today. So when we go in to have conversations with how sinceenive members, with people like Maggie that are leading their chapters, we start from a place of education, educating the House and seniate members of where the real issues are and then using data and showing
them the numbers. But unfortunately, this conversation around transgender athletes has really become like a lightning bolt that people are using to pass like anti trans legislation through sport, and it's really disappointing to see the vote was like two hundred and eighteen to two hundred and six, so you know, the country is divided and split, but it passed.
Yeah, it's very frustrating to me that maybe like fifteen or ten years ago, if I would google something in women's sports trying to find an athlete or a fact, it would just be the hottest athletes, Like that was the only result I would get. And now we're like slightly moving past the hottest ranking lists, and instead when I google things in women's sport, it just comes up trans issues because that's what's like flooding these conversation spaces.
It's so frustrating that we continue to avoid the real things in pursuit of these bullshit male gaze garbage takes on what's actually happening. You know, Maggie, you're balancing schoolwork, track, friends, fun, You're doing forty minutes each way just to get to practice, and you're working with VIZ and lobbying in DC. So why was it important to you to be an activist and to speak out about this now, especially when you're in the midst of having this very short window of competing.
Yeah, I think I have a really great opportunity to leave Wisconsin athotics better than I found it, and I feel that teleline is morally right. I want expansion of opportunities for me, but not just me, I want it for all the girls that will come up.
After I leave. That's freaking awesome, Maggie. You're giving me a mild amount of hope, not a lot. It's hard to muster right now, but knowing that there are people like you doing this now while you're still in school is awesome. And Steph, thank you for rallying all these badass girls and women across the country to do this.
We will be thinking of you and standing with you when you go reintroduce this bill, and we'll be hoping and for common sense and folks who actually want to hear about the issues instead of supporting their political record. So we appreciate you, guys, both forgiving us some time.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
We hope you join us. Anybody can join. It's on February fifth at Capitol Hill at two pm.
All right, anybody can join if you're nearby or closer than Alaska. Get on out there, Maggie. I'll have to check and see when you're competing in Chicago next. That's where I am so I can come. I can root you guys on. Thanks so much to Maggie and Steph for taking the time to chat with us. We have to take another break, come back, Welcome back, slices. We love that you're listening, but we want you to get in the game every day too, So here's our good
game play of the day. If you're in the DC area, join Steph and Maggie along with other Voice and Sport advocates tomorrow when they advocate for gender equity and sport on Capitol Hill. We'll link to the details in our show notes. And if you live further away, you can still support their work by donating to the Voice and Sport Advocate program. We'll link to that in our show
notes too. We always love to hear from you. To hit us up on email good game at Wondermedia neetwork dot com, or leave us a voicemail at eight seven two two oh four fifty seventy and don't forget to subscribe. Rate and review. It's easy watch a parade full of many New York liberty fans, rating five out of five Scenes of joy review. My sister and her family are on vacation in the Bahamas, and they went to the
annual Junior junk Anew which is a kid's parade. And among the many groups of dancers and revelers and all these incredible costumes were these kids celebrating hometown hero John Quell Jones, who is of course Behaman, and celebrating the New York Liberty's first WNBA championship. And there were kids dunking little mini basketballs on a giant float that said Delayed, not Denied on the front and had pictures of John Quell and the New York skyline and the Statue of Liberty.
There were these packs of kids carrying basketball art that said MVP. A girl decked out as Lady Liberty, another girl wearing an elephant hat, and there were even little mini referee. He's running around so cute, as Ari Chamber says, the WNBA is so important. My sister grabs some photos on some video and send him to me, so we'll link to him in the show notes. Now it's your
turn rate and review. You can do it, I promise we ask you every day, like follow up Pashadi who gave us five stars and wrote starting the day with women's sports and some solid humor is all I could ask for. I've been recommending the show to all my friends and seriously questioning the relationships I have with those who don't immediately love it as well. That's a very good way to judge character, pasht. We fully endorse that if they don't like our show out thanks for listening.
See you tomorrow when we get ready for the college softball season with a no Dumb Questions episode with Reporter Rhiann and Potkey Good Game Staff, Good Game, Maggie Hugh. Schools that still prioritize men's sports. Good Game with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Production by Wonder Media Network. Our producers are Alex Azzie
and Misha Jones. Our executive producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan, and Emily Rutterer. Our editors are Emily Rutterer, Britney Martinez, and Grace Lynch. Our associate producer is Lucy Jones and I'm your host Sarah Spain.