ESPN claims they want to grow the game and provide more exposure to women's college basketball, yet they are doing the opposite by choosing a select few teams to champion the cause.
And to me that's the biggest issue. In the men's game, you can have upsets and still have tons of interest and excitement. That's part of the intrigue of the men's tournament.
In the women's game, you've totally hitched your wagon to 5 teams, and if they don't win you don't have a product. Nobody is going to tune in to watch WVU/Colorado. Even really good teams like Indiana, UCLA, Notre Dame, etc. don't have any real draw. It's just hard to fully discount some kind of impropriety with the results when you realize the millions they are out if the main 5 draws don't move on.