Women’s college basketball is headed to the City of Lights. South Carolina and Notre Dame will meet on the international stage in Paris to open the 2023-24 season, the schools announced Wednesday. Here’s what you need to know:
- The Gamecocks and Fighting Irish will face off on Nov. 6, 2023, and a venue will be announced at a later date this spring.
- The game marks the first time an NCAA regular-season basketball game has been played on Parisian soil.
The Athletic’s instant analysis:
How big of a deal is this?
It’s significant, and not just because it’s the first college basketball game played in Paris. The momentum for women’s basketball within the U.S. has shown major strides in recent years — look no further than the viewership and attendance numbers for the 2023 national title game — and this is another big step that we’ve seen taken by other American college sports teams.
And France is likely going to welcome the game with open arms. The country has its own professional league (WNBA fans would recognize this league as the one that often runs the longest/into the W season), and its national team has also made strides recently. Les Bleues took the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics, just its second Olympic medal ever. — Jennings
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