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As Anriel Howard Shows, Underpayment Of Elite Women's Basketball Players Only Begins In College

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(Photo by Doug Buffington/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

A few days ago, it was reported that Anriel Howard was transferring from the Texas A&M Aggies to the Mississippi State Bulldogs. Howard was the most productive player on the Aggies last season, and her addition for the 2018-19 season should definitely help the Bulldogs overcome the departure of Victoria Vivians.

One can argue, though, that Howard's decision was not just about the Aggies and Bulldogs. It appears to highlight the choices elite athletes in women's basketball face in the United States.

Let's start with the story in college. Howard leaves Texas A&M as the school's all-time leading rebounder. If we consider all the box-score statistics, we see that of all the players returning in the Southeastern Conference, only Teaira McCowan — Howard's new teammate with the Bulldogs — produced more wins in 2017-18. So Howard's addition clearly should help the Bulldogs on the court.

Howard, though, does more than just produce wins on the court. As detailed in my textbook Sports Economics — and the blog that accompanies the book — we can do more than just measure how many wins Howard produces. We can also see how much revenue those wins are worth. This analysis indicates that last season Howard led Texas A&M with 6.6 wins produced and that these wins were worth $126,931 in revenue. The cost of attending Texas A&M for out-of-state students is estimated to be $54,332. That means Howard was definitely underpaid by the Aggies.

In other words, like many women in college basketball, Howard was exploited by Texas A&M.

According to data from the Department of Education, in 2016-17 (the last year revenue data was reported by colleges and universities), Mississippi State reported $4.7 million in revenue from women's college basketball while Texas A&M reported only $1.1 million. Consequently, if Howard maintains her productivity (and revenues for Mississippi State are similar next year to what they were in 2016-17), then Howard will generate $352,654 in revenue for the Bulldogs next season. This is many times the cost of attending Mississippi State. So relative to her time with the Aggies, Howard will be even more underpaid by the Bulldogs.

Howard, though, didn't have to be underpaid by the Bulldogs. There were 31 players drafted by the WNBA in 2018 who played college basketball in 2017-18. These players — on average — produced 5.1 wins in college last season. Howard clearly did more in college than many players who were drafted. Certainly, we would have expected a man with this résumé to end his college career. So why didn't Howard enter the 2018 WNBA draft?

One issue is the relatively long odds associated with the WNBA draft. The WNBA has only 12 teams and 144 roster spots. As Eli Horowitz noted in May, the odds of a basketball player being drafted in the WNBA are longer than the odds of athletes being drafted in the NBA, the NFL, MLS, the NHL or Major League Baseball.

And even if Howard were drafted, the odds of landing an actual roster spot are also somewhat long. Although every first-round pick in 2018 is currently on a WNBA roster, only half of the players taken in the second are currently employed in the WNBA. And it doesn't appear that any of the players taken in the third round are currently in the league.

In sum, as good as Howard was in 2017-18, there was no guarantee that she would end up on a WNBA roster in 2018. But let's say she was one of the lucky few who were drafted and secured roster spots. If all that happened, her wages still might actually be less than the cost of attending Texas A&M (i.e., what she was paid to play for the Aggies last year). According to High Post Hoops, A'ja Wilson — the No. 1 pick in the 2018 WNBA draft — is being paid $52,564 to play for the Las Vegas Aces this year. Meanwhile, Myisha Hines-Allen, a second-round pick in 2018, is being only paid $41,796 by the Washington Mystics.

So Howard didn't have much of a financial incentive in 2018 to declare for the draft.

Of course, it is not unusual for rookie wages to be relatively low in North American professional sports. Unfortunately, star players in the WNBA don't do much better than the rookies. Even if Howard made a roster and became a star, the current maximum salary in the WNBA is less than $120,000. So if all goes well with Howard, she will still be paid less than the revenue she generated for the Texas A&M Aggies last year.

Is this all WNBA players are really worth?

NBA players are paid about 50% of league revenue. Meanwhile, it has become increasingly known that WNBA players are very likely paid less than 25% of league revenue. This figure, which I calculated, has been noted in such places as The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, ESPN, The Minnesota Star Tribune and The Washington Post. And it should be emphasized that this figure very likely exaggerates the share of revenue the players in the WNBA actually receive. The only revenue sources used in the aforementioned calculations were the WNBA's broadcasting deal with ESPN and a minimum estimate of gate revenue. The calculation ignored the league's deals with Twitter, FanDuel and Tidal. In addition, it ignores subscriptions to WNBA League Pass, merchandise sales, local television and radio deals, and corporate sponsorships.

And it appears those corporate sponsorships can be substantial. An article from Bailey Knecht included this observation: "According to Lyn Agnello, vice president of corporate partnerships for the Connecticut Sun, the team depends on sponsorships for about 40% of its revenue."

It is not known what the sponsorship revenue looks like for all teams. But Agnello's statement suggests the Suns' revenue may be much higher than the aforementioned calculations would indicate. The ESPN broadcasting deal and the aforementioned gate revenue estimate indicate league revenue is about $52.4 million, or about $4.4 million per WNBA team. But given what Agnello says about sponsorships, Connecticut's revenue might be about $7.3 million.

According to High Post Hoops, the Sun's salary cap in 2018 is $976,300. If the Sun were at the salary cap (and High Post Hoops says they are not), then they would be paying only 13% of team revenue to their players (using that $7.3 million estimate). And again, this might still be an exaggeration since we haven't included the other revenue sources.

All of this suggests that it is likely the players on the Sun are underpaid. And although other WNBA teams may not be doing as well as the Sun, it is also reasonable to argue that many WNBA players are worth substantially more than their WNBA salaries.

So whether Howard chose the Bulldogs or the WNBA, the story was likely going to be the same: Howard, like the other elite athletes in women's basketball, is going to be underpaid no matter where she plays in the United States next season.

The good news for Howard is that the WNBA Player Association has the right to re-open the Collective Bargaining Agreement in 2019. If the WNBAPA takes that step, the issue of salaries can be addressed.

It will certainly be a difficult negotiation. In addition to salaries, the WNBAPA and the league will need to address the issue of player travel. While the players will be demanding that they be treated like world-class athletes, the league will likely argue the WNBA is struggling to turn a profit. Although some people seem to accept at face value the league's assertion that some teams are not profitable, the level of profits will not be known until the league releases financial information that reveals all of its revenue sources and all of its expenses.

Although we cannot predict the outcome of these negotiations, it seems quite likely that WNBA players will see higher salaries in the near future. And it is possible that if Howard does make it to the WNBA, players like her will be paid a wage closer to the revenues they are generating professionally. So although Howard will almost certainly be underpaid this next season at Mississippi State, it is possible that that won't be true as her basketball career moves forward.