The Differences in Social Media Coverage for Ohio University Athletics

Introduction:

Title IX: Equalizing Women's Sports

Before Title IX became the law of the land here in the United States in 1972, women faced many obstacles in the world of college sports. They received little funding (if they received any at all) from their institutions, had worse playing and living conditions than their male counterparts, and in some cases, weren’t given opportunities to play sports at all. 

In 1971 at Ohio University, the athletic budget was over a million dollars. Women’s athletics received just $913. The lack of funding for women’s sports was apparent. Many women’s coaches would complain about locker rooms, playing fields, or accessibility. 

To say that Title IX saved women’s sports in the U.S. is a bit of an understatement. Most schools across the country severely underfunded their women’s athletic programs, if they had them at all. By 1978, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare required that educational institutions provided both men and women equal opportunities in athletics. The Department of Education, founded in 1980, has been the enforcer of this ruling ever since its inception. 

Title IX is important to many people in athletics, including Ohio University’s Athletic Director Slade Larscheid. “My aunt is a long-time women's basketball coach in college,” he said, “She never had the opportunity to play high school or college sports, she's pre-Title IX. And to see her work her way up without having that past, she’s a trailblazer.” 

While much has changed at OU and across the country in women’s sports over the past five and a half decades, there’s still some cracks shown in the promise of equality.  

Female hockey athletes at Northeastern University, a prestigious hockey school, had to walk down a set of stairs in ice skates to get to their games up until last year. The men did not.

But perhaps the biggest difference between men and women's collegiate athletics is media coverage. Ohio is one of many schools across the country with female athletic programs that aren’t promoted or broadcasted nearly as much. 

Women’s sports broadcasts, if their games are even broadcasted at all, are often hidden behind a paywall like ESPN+. The only women’s teams that are shown on national broadcasts are the powerhouses of the sport, especially those in Power 5 conferences. 

If you turn on any sports channel in the United States, chances are that you'll get a commercial for a nationally televised men's game. You can't really say the same about women's athletics. It's not like these advertisements don't work, either. EDO, an AI company that provides television companies with efficient marketing tactics and data to carry those tactics out, released a report that states that on top of the fact that in 2024 women's sports viewership shot up 131%, the advertising impact went up 56%. This means that more people are watching women's sports because of its promotion.

It's important to state that a lot of these numbers are from the success of the WNBA and women's college basketball. Due to this success, women's college basketball is breaking viewership records every year, and the WNBA just signed a new collective bargaining agreement allowing their players to be paid millions for the first time in league history. NCAA women's basketball isn't the only women's sport that has enjoyed recent success, though. Women's volleyball, lacrosse, and gymnastics have skyrocketed in viewership as well.

Women's college sports have a public interest, but they aren't promoted or broadcasted as much as their male counterparts, which this article dives deeper into later on.

For Ohio and most mid-major colleges, viewership and engagement has risen in recent years, but not to the level of Power 5 schools. There has been just one Ohio women’s game broadcasted to a nationally televised audience this school year, which was when the Bobcats’ women’s basketball team played host to Miami on ESPNU on March 7 and won 77-62. 

Social Media in Society:

As athletics have grown and changed in today’s world, so has the presence of social media. According to research by demandsage.com, there were over five billion social media users in the world. That number is projected to hit six billion by 2028. That means that over two-thirds of the world uses social media. 

With all the attention of the world being on social media, it only makes sense that things like news, advertisements, and in this case, sports, moved to various platforms. Social media creates avenues for athletic departments to make even more money outside of the traditional ways through things like advertising and subscriptions. 

Unless you've lived under a rock for the past five years, you probably know the name Caitlin Clark. You couldn't turn on a single sports talk show without hearing her name or watching her shoot a shot from the parking lot and drain it with ease. The success and spotlight she brought to women's college basketball paved the way for other stars in her draft class to gain massive followings, such as Angel Reese, Cameron Brink, or JuJu Watkins. Some media people call this the "Caitlin Clark Effect", when one athlete's popularity works for the better of the sport.

In the world of NIL, we see a lot of athletes almost commercialize themselves on their own socials to make a decent bit of money while being in the national spotlight. There's a clear difference in earnings by gender there, as well. The top male earners hardly ever appear in commercials, they are just given money by schools' rich donors that funnel funds into sports like football or men's basketball. The women, however, have to promote themselves as a brand all over social media or television commercials, since donors are less likely to give them lucrative deals.

Nevertheless, Ohio University has without a doubt taken advantage of this jump to digital platforms, as all 16 of its sports it offers at the NCAA Division I level have their own social media account. You’ll see things like game day posts, final scores, or great performances from Bobcats in every sport on these pages.  

But not all sports are given the same attention on socials. 

Written by: Noah Cavin

Sports Teams at Ohio University: The Statistics

Social media can often bring a lot of attention and publicity to sports organizations. Every Ohio sport on campus has both a social media page on X and Instagram. A huge part of growing the brand of the team is posting consistently across each account. 

The statistics in terms of accounts at Ohio University is particularly imbalanced when it comes to following numbers. Ohio Football makes up 36% of the followers across all of the universities social media sports accounts on Instagram. For reference, no other team even accounts for more than 12%. Volleyball is the only women's sports that accounts for more than 10%. Overall, male sports account for 64% of the following numbers across university athletic pages, even though there are more women's sports on campus. The numbers seem to show favoritism to male sports. 

So, what might you find on one of these social media pages? A lot of the content posted is game centered updates. Whether that be in the form of a graphic posted by someone working in the social media department or a clip from the broadcast. Sometimes, there will be enough time to get and edit footage from one of the videographers on site. It all depends on the situation and getting out the information and update as quick as possible. 

Social media teams have been using more and more forms of creative content as well. One of the most popular segment videos as of late has been players getting asked questions after practice. It can be as simple as "What did you eat for breakfast?" Simple interactions that can be used in a post to promote the players and let the people at home get to know them better. The football team has gotten these style of posts the last two Fridays. But, if you look at Ohio Women's Field Hockey's Instagram, they haven't gotten this style of post at all this offseason. As a matter of fact, the team has only gotten 17 posts on Instagram since their season has ended. Football has had more than 17 posts in the last week. 

Now, you might be wondering just exactly this might have an effect on the athletes. Well, this has actually become a much larger deal in today's world of sports due to NIL. Since athletes can now profit off of their name, image and likeness, they have the oppurtunity to make money off of their brand. But, a large part of creating that brand for the athletes themselves can come through social media. 

So, which sports posts the most on social media to get the athletes their exposure? Well, there isn't really an accurate way to track posts year to date. But, there is one statistic that can paint a picture. The Ohio Football team created their account in April of 2019. There was only one another athletic account made later than that date, which was the track and cross country page. Yet, football has the most posts on the account out of all the sports teams by 300. For reference, the track and cross country account was created about one year and four months later than football. The football account has almost 1,600 more posts than that account. 

The numbers certainly tell a story about the differences in coverage at Ohio University. Maybe some of these aren't by design, but, you can't ignore the vast differences between each account on social media. 

Written by: Joshua Hoerner

Survey Results

A survey was conducted for Ohio University students regarding social media in relation to Ohio sports teams. Over the course of four days, 52 respondents provided answers to twelve questions.

The Argument: More People Engage with Men's Sports

We talked about the following numbers earlier and it could be because they get so many more posts than the other sports. It could also just be that more people care about the football team. 

This is something that could be reflected when students choose what sport they would like to work with in the athletic department. Current Ohio University Athletic Director Slade Larscheid highlighted this as a potential reason. 

"I think it comes down to do we allow our students that they're interested in certain sports to cover it," Larscheid said. "I mean, the whole point of it is to gain experience and some is the mainstream piece like again. There's probably more fans of football than some of our Olympic sports from a resume standpoint, too."

If you look at attendance numbers, they are very clearly in favor of football. Take for example the win over West Virginia. The attendance record at Peden Stadium was broken by fans. Basketball had a very highly attended game at home against Miami. Women's sports didn't necessarily have a type of game where attendance was high. 

Another thing to consider is just how much money the university is spending on the football program alone. As of a 2024 chart, the university spent a little more than 12 million dollars on the team. If you are spending that much money on a program, you not only want to be the best, but also have it get the most attention. In total, the school spent a little more than 25 million on athletics. Football is just a little under half of the budget. 

Football in generally garners more attention than other sports. The NCAA National Championship between Miami and Indiana got 30.1 million viewers, around 10 million more than the Men's Basketball National Championship. It marked and 11-year high and was the second most-watched national championship game ever. When football won the MAC championship in 2024, it got over one-million views on ESPN. Of course the university is going to market that game on socials to bring attention to the school. 

Written by: Joshua Hoerner

Agenda Setting Theory

The Agenda Setting Theory aligns with this subject almost entirely. With Ohio University being a mid-major athletic program, social media outputs heavily influence the support and attendance of these events. When accessing the survey, our group sent it out to the University, where at least 50 students responded. Many of the best moments in Ohio women’s sports this season were overshadowed by the favoritism towards men’s athletics. 

This trend isn’t exclusive to Ohio University, as almost all women’s college athletics see similar treatment. According to a study done by Western Oregon University in 2019, women’s sport coverage was 5.1% on TV and 5.4% of all sports coverage online. 

Most students who responded to our survey report seeing minimal women’s sports content in their day-to-day lives. Compare this with men’s athletics, where 81% of respondents say they encounter men content at least often every day. This is no coincidence, as women’s sports at Ohio University are not given the same priority as men’s sports. 

Ohio Swimmer Sophia Matern spoke on this issue, “You hardly ever see anything related to swimming on (Ohio University’s official) Instagram page,” she adds, “It feels like there’s been 100 football and basketball posts since the last swimming post.” 

“The bar for making it on the main account is much higher for women’s sports than it is for men,” Matern said. “They never miss a game for basketball or football, but when swim team made the MAC Championships this year, they posted nothing,” 

Matern spoke on her hope for Ohio University’s social media pages. “Even if they sent one person to swim meets to take photos and post slightly more often, it would show people swimming, and other sports are just as good and exciting as basketball and football.” 

“I’m not saying any of this to hate on OU, we want to work with them because we (OU swim team and women athletes) committed here to represent this school for one reason or another. We put in so much work every day to be the best at what we do, work that’s worth showing on any social media page.” She also states. “We love Athens and all our fans who support us. We deserve for our accomplishments to be on social media because people could see that and go ‘oh I didn’t realize our swim team was so good, I’ll go to a meet with my friends,’” 

The best way for students to be exposed to what’s going on throughout campus is online.  Social media posts are a simple yet quick way for people to process information. When information about how sports teams are doing throughout campus is withheld from students and alumni on the main social media pages of Ohio University, these programs struggle to generate a high level of fan support compared to being posted on the main accounts. 

Posting more women’s accomplishments is a small yet easy step for the University to take towards equal opportunities for both men’s and women’s athletics. Not only will it get more eyes to the product, boosting revenue and support for these teams, but it will also give a sense of commitment towards women athletes who work tirelessly to represent the university at their athletic peak. 

Written By: Quinn Elfers

Solutions

Women's sports still lags behind in several different ways from their male counterparts in terms of support and attention. These teams however have made big strides in recent years which can be partially credited to the rise of social media. According to an Operative article from Sarah Levitt, the leaps in popularity over the past two years seen in the WNBA, NWSL, and Women's Olympic events and athletes can be attributed to how the accessibility of social media as well as the digital presence that the most famous female athletes have (Levitt, 2025). This means that for Ohio University athletics, a similar jump in popularity in less "principle" sports could be seen by using social media correctly. This boils down to a two-faceted approach which sees changes in media team practices and our generation's, specifically media and sports management students, practices. 

What Can Media Teams Do?

Last season, the Softball team was in the MAC Championship against arch-rivals Miami of Ohio with a chance to knock off the winners of the previous three conference titles in the sport. The unverified ohiobobcatsb Instagram page made 20 different posts over 2 days regarding the three-game series. This coverage regarding the momentous occasion was not met with the same fanfare by Ohio University official Instagram page, which did not mention the team’s tournament run.  

It is an important distinction to make that the Bobcats fell short in the series; both basketball teams failed to sniff a conference title while having their tournament run be documented more extensively by the official page, with the Women’s team and semifinalists receiving five dedicated posts and the Men’s team receiving two dedicated posts. The two posts regarding the men’s team came after 5 dedicated posts about their regular-season finale at the Convocation Center against undefeated rivals Miami.  

An article from The Conversationalist, the online independent feminist journalistic publication, discusses and argues the upsides and pitfalls of designating women’s sports teams with their own social media pages. The article discusses different case studies, such as the USWNT social media presence (Thompson-Radford & Cable, 2024). Since splitting accounts for Men’s and Women’s teams, the women have been able to get a similar social media presence by follower count. While growing the game is important, separating the account runs the risk of reinforcing the narrative of the Women’s game as “outsiders”.  

Manchester  City Football Club’s “The Same City, Same Passion” campaign tried to address this back in 2018. In a press release by the club, the Citizens stated that the campaign by the club tries to not only grow Women’s football but also try to make merge the men’s and women’s teams as well as the women’s and men’s games into one. This included several promotional events, but among them was combining social media channels for both teams. Man City Women’s Twitter account has existed since 2011, a year before they became an official team recognized as a member of the Football Club, but still exists to this day. There exists a sizable gap with the Women’s accounts interactions, with like amount usually 10x lower than the average Men’s team post, which is snowballed by the central account being of the men’s first team.  

This paradox is also seen within Ohio University and Ohio athletic pages. But with the context of the university page, more collaboration between the official page as well as the specialized accounts for specific sports teams (specifically of women’s sports) would likely achieve the same goal that Man City’s initiative sought to achieve.  

These social media accounts specified for women’s teams at Ohio University give an extra light that these teams often do not have because of the years of fighting that female athletes have had to go through to grow their sports. However, the issue of making women’s sports as secondary to their male counterparts. Meaning additional crossover between the specialized accounts, as well as increased visibility on the main Ohio University accounts, as opposed to keeping the coverage to those specialized accounts, could not only give that spotlight but also allow these teams to blend with the other male teams with more established media coverage.  

What Can Our Generation Do?

Media companies and social media teams can’t be fully responsible for these issues. These problems additionally trickle down to journalism, communication, and media students that plan on working in sports. With the popularity of football and basketball in our culture, more incoming media students go into college planning to work covering those sports. 

This compounds into a disparity between competition between people who want to work for those sports. Several media and sports management students at Ohio University would often choose to pursue lower roles with the football team than leadership roles within women’s Olympic sports.  

Athletic Director Slade Larscheid highlighted the disparity of people vying to work with football and men’s basketball instead of women’s Olympic sports despite the greater leadership chances with the latter. 

“...you know, over the course of whether you're a freshman or senior or anywhere in between or grad students, they get that they gain that experience, I think is is vital for our success. And then you you look at it from when they leave here to say it is that that first job or what is grad school I think there is prepares any student in the country. You know in a lot of us because they wear a lot of hats here they have a lot of responsibility." 

With less competition comes larger room for students to make in implant in media trails that still need paved. With an increase in people working for these sports, an increase in outlets comes with. With social media being the easiest way for people to passively follow a team, the increase of social media coverage that comes with that thus shines a brighter and wider light on these teams and leagues. This should be very attainable with the hyper competitive nature of sports media that yields future employees looking for extra ways to stand out to employers. 

Written by: Charlie Lusk

Why it Matters: 

Athletic competition, since its inception, has brought communities together. With Ohio University athletics seeing a large two-year period in terms of growth, at least some share of the pie. Ohio University Football's home opener against West Virginia was a great showcase of the team as well as the campus and the program to a larger school, as well as a national audience. With record attendance at Peden Stadium, the reigning MAC champions began their home campaign with a victory over a Power 4 school with much more resources. These moments captivated the Bobcat faithful and brought them together. So when similar impressive feats by other teams on campus are not celebrated, the sense of community that athletics across Ohio University for everyone is neutered. 

The most effective way to promote the growth and success of all sports programs at Ohio University is through social media. With the University falling under the mid-major category of Division 1 programs, national news coverage is essentially nonexistent. It's up to the University to highlight these sports for the benefit of the community and athletes who play for the school. 

Ohio University's own catalog states, "OHIO is committed to promoting a campus environment that fosters and celebrates access, inclusion, and belonging for all students. Each and every one of you will bring a unique perspective to your classes, campus jobs, residence halls, and student organizations. Regardless of who you are and your journey to OHIO, you belong here." Actions speak louder than words, and it starts with what the University chooses to promote on its main social media pages.  

If Ohio wants to uphold its standards, more needs to be done on many aspects, but it starts with better promotion of its athletics on social media. Matern spoke on the matter, "Even little shoutouts here and there on OU's Instagram would go a long way in getting people to see what we do." She adds, "There's a big difference from when 25 people show up to our meets to 50 people; it boosts our morale and confidence, and it makes winning a lot more fun." 

Title IX passed just 54 years ago, which made grand strides for women in athletics, but the legacy of exclusion before the passing of the bill still carries on in funding and investment in the attention economy that social media gives. With the integration of social media into society, athletics is a commodity in the attention economy that is bought and sold. This is especially true for athletes of underrepresented sports by media outlets. In the age of NIL and social media, there is a larger opportunity to brand yourself, bringing a greater spotlight to your team and sport. Failure to properly highlight all athletes and varsity teams that make up the campus of Ohio University allows their contributions and accomplishments to fall behind. 

With participation in sports by girls in high school growing over the past 15 years, but still lagging behind the boys' participation, it can be argued and has been argued by James Nuzzo at The Nuzzo Letter that this disparity can be at least partially explained by the lack of attention that women's sports get in the media. With social media being the easiest and most accessible way for younger audiences to consume the content of sports, it is the social responsibility of Ohio University and the Bobcat community to close the gender gap in social media coverage for these teams. 

Equality in sports is essential for the growth of women's sports. College athletics is the ideal place for this change to occur. Social media acts as a vital gateway for students to quickly see how teams are doing or when they play next. Giving women's sports an equal platform on social media benefits both the University and women's athletics. For the University, it promotes more facets of what makes Ohio University great while getting more eyes on exciting sports that students may have no idea about. The basketball team last beat a top-11 team in the regular season nearly 30 years ago in 1999; football has never beaten a ranked team in its history. Ohio Field Hockey pulled off the upset of the year by beating the 11th-best team in the nation. When more than half of the students aren't aware of this happening, it shows a greater problem within Ohio's marketing of said events. 

Promoting women's sports in the same manner as men's does nothing but positively impact the campus by living up to its student catalog, gives students an easier pathway to find more teams to support, and shows Ohio's desire to support all of its athletes, no matter the sport. All the while, breaking away from longstanding and outdated precedents. 

Written by: Charlie Lusk and Quinn Elfers