Ole Miss Women's Basketball Coach Struggles To Accept That The Program Loses Money, Questions University's Fiscal Report During Soapbox

Women's college basketball is more popular today than it ever has been from a national point of view. However, this doesn't mean that every Power Five university receives a positive return on investment. The vast majority of college sports fans understand that reality, which makes the fact that Ole Miss women's basketball coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin not recognizing it both surprising and concerning.

Last week, Chase Parham, an Ole Miss reporter for Rivals, shared a report outlining the net profits and losses for the four major sports on campus for the 2023 fiscal year. Unsurprisingly, football was the moneymaker earning just over $12.3 million while baseball earned a profit of $166k. Basketball was nothing but a money pit, particularly on the women's side with the program losing close to $8.4 million.

Parham's post on X was a simple presentation of the numbers with no added commentary or analysis, but McPhee-McCuin took incredible exception.

McPhee-McCuin, better known as Coach Yo, accused Parham of trying to present some sort of narrative about her program and spreading clickbait.

She not only posted her complaint on X, formerly Twitter but went on a four-minute soapbox in front of the media at Ole Miss following her team's win over Florida.

"Someone tried to put out a narrative...as if all we do is we're a waste," McPhee-McCuin said. "We’re not a waste. That just pissed me off. And when I walk out and I see my fans, the fans come out, and we can’t get Club Red to come out, that pisses me off. Because why not come out and support us? Why not be a cool school for everybody? Turn on ESPN. There are people out there watching that game. So we’ve gotta catch up man. We’re behind. It’s disappointing."

The recorded attendance for the game against Florida was just 2,450, and Coach Yo couldn't quite wrap her mind around why so few people were coming to women's hoops games. She made the very bold decision of calling out the community of Oxford for not supporting the team, which may end up backfiring on her and her team.

"It’s disappointing when my team runs out here and (we) have won a whole lot and we don’t get the crowd support that we deserve," McPhee-McCuin said. "And some people will say, ‘Oh, she’s just complaining, she needs to shut up.’ Well, I’m not shutting up. I’m not shutting up. You know why? Because when I turn on the TV, when I look around, when we go to other places, women’s sports is a real thing. And so I’m going to be the voice for that here. Because our community needs to be better, man.”

McPhee-McCuin also claimed that "you can't put a dollar amount" on the women's team advancing to the Sweet 16 a year ago. Well actually, you can, and the 2024 fiscal report will paint an obvious picture of whether or not the team's success in 2023 carried over into the new year. Instead of costing the university close to $8.4 million as it did last year, maybe in '24 the program will only lose $8.2 million.

The Ole Miss women played host to Tennessee on Sunday afternoon in front of a crowd of 3,863 fans inside The Pavilion, which has an estimated capacity of 9,500. Seeing a slight uptick in fans when the most historic program in the SEC comes to town probably isn't the result McPhee-McCuin was striving for.

The reality that only a select few are honest and bold enough to talk about is that if universities wanted to operate as successful businesses then women's basketball would be among the first programs to be axed from the business plan. Some schools return a profit from their women's hoops teams, sure, but the vast majority lose millions each and every year.

Follow Mark Harris on X @itismarkharris