The WNBA Finals will face even more football competition than usual this season, the first of its new media rights deal.
Four out of the potential seven WNBA Finals games this season are slated to air opposite the NFL, per the playoff schedule announced Wednesday. Games 2 and 5 are scheduled to air opposite “Monday Night Football” on October 19 (Commanders-49ers) and October 26 (Cowboys-Eagles) and Games 3 and 6 opposite “Thursday Night Football” on October 22 (Patriots-Bears) and October 29 (Panthers-Packers). All four games will be on USA Network. By comparison, only two of last year’s games were scheduled to air opposite the NFL, both of them Sunday afternoon games on ABC.
The three other games are each scheduled for college football Saturdays, with Games 1 and 4 on NBC in the afternoon of October 17 and 24 and Game 7 scheduled for primetime on USA Network October 31. Two games faced college football last season, but on less competitive Friday nights. The last Finals game on a college football Saturday was the deciding Game 5 in 2006.
Beyond football, as many as four games could air opposite the MLB Postseason, including Game 2 opposite an NLCS Game 7 on October 19, Game 5 versus Game 3 of the World Series on October 26, and — as previously noted — Game 7 head-to-head with a Game 7 of the Fall Classic on October 31. No WNBA game has ever aired opposite any game of the World Series.
The series will also overlap with the beginning of the NBA season, with Game 3 airing opposite an Opening Week doubleheader on ESPN that includes LeBron James’ first home game as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers.
The competition is considerably more formidable than last year, when the Finals began two weeks earlier and would have completely avoided the World Series and NBA regular season even if it had gone the full seven.
Leagues have taken multiple approaches to dealing with the problem of football competition. MLB in 2014 adjusted its World Series schedule to ensure that only one of the potential seven games would air opposite the NFL, and further shifted in 2022 to eliminate any games on NFL Sundays. Other leagues have moved up their seasons to make sure that their championship is decided before the NFL season begins, most notably the PGA TOUR. The WNBA appears to be going full steam ahead, and given some of the potential Finals matchups this year, it is entirely possible that the league will still be able to hold its own in the ratings relative to past years.
This year may provide the toughest competition the WNBA Finals has to face, as under the new collective bargaining agreement, the season could run as late as November 21 in most years going forward. While that will still put games up against the NFL, college football and NBA, plus men’s and women’s college basketball, it would almost certainly mean that the Finals would take place fully after the World Series.
