With the Rutgers women's basketball team playing nationally or regionally televised games at least twice a month all regular season, I started thinking about what these big games can do not only for the Scarlet Knights program, but also the sport of women's basketball as a whole.
RU plays on the big stage 12 times this year, including three of the five games that the Knights have played so far this season.
The increased exposure is due to a few factors: the team's heightened profile following last season's finals appearance and the fact that 12 of the Knights games are against preseason Top 25 opponents. In fact, the Dec. 30 game versus Temple on ESPNU is the only televised matchup that does not involve one of the aforementioned ranked opponents.
Playing in to both the toughness of RU's schedule, as well as the increase of TV time for the Knights, is the strength of a Big East Conference that sent eight teams to last year's NCAA Tournament.
The conference will be seen on television 101 times this season, including at least two appearances apiece for each of the league's 16 teams.
Not only do the teams play conference games on national television, but the Big East also matches up against power conferences such as the SEC, ACC and Big 10.
And when games like that end the way two of RU's TV contests have already ended, with the outcome hanging on the final shot of the game, it can't be denied that the benefit extends to the national picture.
Fans that normally would not seek out a women's basketball game, as you would have had to do a few years ago in order to watch an out-of-market matchup, now get to see women's basketball at its best.
For example, when last year's national finalists, Tennessee and Rutgers, face off on ESPN Feb. 11 in Tennessee.
People would argue that RU's win Sunday, 45-43 over No. 6 LSU, wasn't the greatest way to earn fans, as defensive contests tend to not be exciting to the casual fan. But seeing the nation's two best centers bang it out in the paint all game is well worth the price of admission, so to speak.
And seeing a team that's as good at what it does - as Rutgers is on defense - is always exciting, even if it does result in the lowest combined score that RU has seen since 2001.
With two Big East games being aired on CBS and 16 on either ESPN or ESPN2, it's not just that the games will be on TV: It is the type of television exposure that the games get that will help the most.
It's not that games on ESPNU or CSTV, or even regional channels like SNY, don't do an admirable job of getting games to the people that want to watch them: It's that big-time networks airing big-time games exposes a larger more diverse audience to a growing sport.
If the WNBA is to become a viable professional league, with consistent profits and lucrative player contracts, it needs women's college basketball to raise the sport's profile first.
The disappointing thing about all of the increased exposure that Rutgers is specifically attaining is that the Knights averaged just 3,337 fans per home game in attendance, ranking the national runner-up on the court as the number 35 team in the stands.
With so many games in the spotlight this season, it would be a shame if the Louis Brown Athletic Center - which held an RU women's basketball record 8,587 fans for a 2001 game versus Notre Dame - was half empty again for next Monday's Jimmy V Classic showdown with Maryland, currently the third-ranked team in the nation.
Nic Martino would like to hear what you have to say.
Feel free to e-mail him at phillienic@yahoo.com
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