College Basketball is something that is one of the most-watched sports tournaments in America. Just last year, almost 14.82 million people tuned in to watch the NCAA men’s National Championship Game. However, women’s college basketball is also pacing up with men, as last year’s ESPN viewership averaged around 500,000 in the first round, and the championship game broke all the records, with 10.8 million viewers on ESPN. With the numbers both formats have pulled in, it becomes evident to know the major differences between the formats.

The first and foremost difference between men’s and women’s basketball is the format of the quarters and the halves. The men play two 20-minute halves, while the women play more like the NBA and WNBA: in quarters. Women’s games have 4 quarters of 10 minutes each with a 15-minute halftime after the second quarter.

The decision to move away from the half system used by the NCAA men’s basketball teams was taken in 2015. This was done to enhance the flow of the game and to do away with the 1-and-1 free throws, which are more prevalent in men’s basketball after a team reaches seven team fouls, and introduce two free throws on the fifth foul, just like in the NBA.

On the other hand, men’s teams’ non-incorporation of the ‘quarter’ format is also backed with solid reasons. The change was made in 1954 to deter teams from stalling in the absence of a ‘shot clock’ at the time. Then, apart from halves and quarter differences, there are other major differences too.

The other difference is the size of the basketball. In the women’s tournament, the size of the basketball is 28.5 inches while in the men’s NCAA tournament, the size is 29.5 inches. Furthermore, for men, basketball should be at max 22 ounces whereas for women, the ball weight will be 20 ounces maximum.

Scoring and rim size difference in men’s and women’s NCAA basketball games

In terms of scoring, the men’s games tend to end with higher scores at around 70-80 points per game for each team. Whereas, women’s games, though competitive, tend to be slightly less scoring, with games ending on an average score of 60-65. Both women’s and men’s tournaments have three-point shoots, but men’s games tend to have more conversion rate. Still, there are teams like Caitlin Clark’s Iowa who outscore even men’s teams, so there are exceptions too.

In terms of rim size, there is no difference between men’s and women’s NCAA basketball. Both tournaments have a rim size with a diameter of 18 inches with a height of 10 feet, whereas the backboard measures to be 6 feet wide and 3.5 feet tall. However, people may feel the rim is bigger on television since the ball size is a bit smaller, as discussed above.

Apart from these differences, the teams also have different rules about host sites in the tournament. In men’s NCAA tournaments, teams do not get a preferred location despite the number of seed they get. Whereas, in women’s tournaments, each team seeded on the top four lines typically hosts the initial first and second rounds. For instance, if Michigan is seeded as no. 1 it will host Miami who would be the 16th seed (hypothetically). But, Michigan will also host the game between the 8th and 9th seeds.

Lastly, there are some differences in backcourt violations too, as in men’s games teams are penalized if they take more than 10 seconds to get the ball to the mid-court. Whereas, in women’s games, no time limit is in place and athletes can take as much time as they like to move the ball up.