When Athletes Unlimited basketball began five weeks ago, it wasn’t just the players who made history. Cindy Brunson and Sheryl Swoopes, AU’s broadcasting team for the inaugural season, became the first female commentary duo of color to lead a professional sports league.

“If you’d have told me, tapped me on the shoulder 20 years ago when I was at ESPN and said, ‘Hey, this is coming,’ I would’ve been, ‘Yeah, right, I’ll believe it when I see it,’” Brunson told Just Women’s Sports. “But now that it’s happened and I actually get to be a part of it, it’s so freaking amazing.”

Brunson has sat in history-making seats before. Two years after starting at ESPN in 1999, Brunson became the first biracial woman to host “SportsCenter.” She was there for 13 years before leaving to join the Pac-12 Network and work other sportscasting gigs.

Then last year, Ilene Hauser, Athletes Unlimited’s senior advisor of operations and the former manager of marketing at Nike, approached Brunson with the opportunity to serve as the play-by-play voice of AU’s debut basketball season. The chance to serve in a front-facing broadcast role for a major professional sports league was too good for Brunson to pass up. And the possibility of having Swoopes join her as color commentator made it feel like a winning lottery ticket.

Swoopes, the first player to sign with the WNBA in 1997, ended her career as a four-time WNBA champion and three-time MVP, and is still considered one of the best women’s basketball players of all time. While she’s worked in the booth periodically since her retirement, Athletes Unlimited gave Swoopes her first full-time color commentary gig at the professional level.

“I’ve had the great luxury of working alongside some really fantastic people in my career,” Brunson said, shouting out fellow “SportsCenter” hosts Neil Everett and Stan Verrett, but she noted that her chemistry with Swoopes has been off-the-charts since the beginning.

“It has blown me away,” she said. “I’ve never gotten into a rhythm that quickly with an analyst in my career.”

Swoopes said Brunson is “a big reason why” she has enjoyed the five-week gig with Athletes Unlimited and hopes to work with her again in the future.

“She has taught me so much about being an analyst,” Swoopes said. “She is such an amazing broadcaster but an even better person. Her knowledge, passion and excitement for the game is what’s missing in the women’s game today.”

We’re at the half on FS2 ⁦@AUProSports⁩ #AUHoops Team Harrison up by 5 trying to close out the penultimate week on a winning note vs Team Hawkins! If you love hoop this is for you‼️ Join me & ⁦@airswoopes22⁩ now! IYKYK😤 #BeUnlimited 💛🧡💙💜 pic.twitter.com/3wJcaRP1b3

— Cindy Brunson (@CindyBrunsonAZ) February 20, 2022

Brunson and Swoopes both recognize that the existence of a league like Athletes Unlimited only contributes to the growth of women’s sports. For a long time, people who played and worked in women’s sports operated with the attitude that they were “just happy to be here,” grateful for whatever scraps they were given. Brunson believes that narrative is a thing of the past.

“Athletes Unlimited has said that, not only do we not want to be adjacent, we want a seat at the table,” Brunson said. “In fact, we want to be at the head of the table. And I love that about this league.”

While AU was founded in early 2020 by two men, Jonathan Soros and Jon Patricof, the women who have taken a chance on the burgeoning league are united in their efforts to forge their own path. Beyond the founders, everyone Brunson has worked with at AU has been a woman.

“I think women have gotten to the point where they are tired of waiting for men to do the right thing,” she said. “They have built a bridge, they have gotten over it, and they are taking the reins to make things happen for themselves.”

Part of the generation that “did a lot of going along to get along” in order to make strides earlier in her career, Brunson has been glad to see a shifting of the tides. Now, she can prioritize Athletes Unlimited rather than call games for other networks just to maintain her standing in the male-dominated industry.

Brunson knows she has the responsibility of being a standard-bearer for women in sports. When the COVID-19 pandemic halted and then slowed sports down in 2020, she gained a new understanding of how much of an impact she has on those watching at home.

“It’s not just me driving down the road in my career anymore,” she said. “I’ve got a bunch of younger, Black and brown people in the backseat, so what I do, what exit I take has to be as good for them as it is for me. That’s why it was a no-brainer for me to do Athletes Unlimited.”

It’s also why the emotions rushed in after she and Swoopes finished their first AU game in late January. The magnitude of what they had accomplished as trailblazers in the women’s sports broadcast booth was finally starting to set in.

“When I took off the headset after that first game, my eyes were wet,” Brunson said. “I just thought, this is how I dreamed it would be. And my dream came true.”

Emma Hruby is an associate editor at Just Women’s Sports.

The 2025 NCAA volleyball season is down to four top teams, as the Division I national championship tournament's Final Four takes the court in Kansas City on Thursday night.

No. 1 seeds Pitt and Kentucky survived a series of high-profile tournament upsets to punch their tickets to Thursday's semifinals, where No. 3 seeds Texas A&M and Wisconsin will join the Panthers and Wildcats.

"The Final Four is just so special, it is so incredible," Wisconsin head coach Kelly Sheffield said ahead of Thursday's action. "You want as many of your players that are committed, that decide to come here, you want them to experience that."

Two teams will look to make history this weekend, with Pitt and Texas A&M both in pursuit of a program-first national championship.

While the Aggies are in uncharted territory, booking their first-ever semifinals berth last weekend, the Panthers are hunting a breakthrough, hoping to claim a first-ever championship final appearance in their fifth consecutive trip to the Final Four.

As for Kentucky and Wisconsin, the Wildcats and Badgers will be looking to add a second trophy to their cases after booking their first program titles in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

How to watch the 2025 NCAA volleyball Final Four

The 2025 NCAA volleyball semifinals begin at 6:30 PM ET on Thursday, when No. 3 Texas A&M takes on No. 1 Pitt before No. 3 Wisconsin faces No. 1 Kentucky at 9 PM ET.

Both Final Four clashes will air live on ESPN.

As the 2028 LA Olympics come into focus, the FIFA Council unveiled the regional allocations for the Summer Games' first-ever 16-team women's soccer tournament this week.

According to the Council's Wednesday report, 2.5 slots will go to AFC (Asia), 2 to CAF (Africa), 3 to Concacaf (North and Central America), 2.5 to Conmebol (South America), 1 to OFC (Oceania), and 4 to UEFA (Europe), with one additional slot reserved, as always, for the host nation — the reigning Olympic gold medalist USWNT.

While the expanded competition allows for greater depth, one AFC and one Conmebol team will ostensibly have to face an inter-continental playoff to determine which region can send an additional team to the 2028 Olympics.

One the other hand, Concacaf's representation will double from 2024, growing from two to four teams given the automatic berth of the USWNT.

Similarly, after host nation France's autobid boosted UEFA'a 2024 allocation to three teams, this week's new distribution doubles the European confederation's previous non-host two-team max for the LA Games — meaning all four of the 2027 UEFA Nations League semifinalists will qualify to compete for gold in 2028.

Notably, CAF and OFC are the only confederations to not see an increase on their previous allocation from the FIFA Council.

The puck dropped on the 2025/26 PWHL Takeover Tour on Wednesday, when the No. 2 Montréal Victoire took down the No. 5 Toronto Sceptres 2-1 in an overtime shootout in front of a sold-out crowd in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Packed into Scotiabank Centre, 10,438 fans watched Team Canada and Victoire captain Marie-Philip Poulin score the shootout's lone goal, handing Montréal their third straight win.

"It was amazing to see the young girls and boys in the crowd wearing our jerseys, saying our names, and wanting our autographs," said Victoire head coach Kori Cheverie. "It's just extremely special."

The PWHL's 16-stop Takeover Tour is just beginning, with nine games planned for Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Washington DC, Denver, and more before the league pauses for the 2026 Winter Olympics.

"We hope that the impact is a positive one. Everywhere we go, that's the impression we want to leave — for little girls to know that they have a dream and that their dream can become a reality," said Sceptres captain and Nova Scotia product Blayre Turnbull following Wednesday's Tour stop.

Halifax marks the third-year league's fourth sold-out stop, joining fellow Canadian cities Edmonton, Québec City, and Vancouver.

How to attend the 2025/26 PWHL Takeover Tour

The PWHL will next pull into Chicago's Allstate Arena for a Takeover Tour stop on Sunday, when the No. 8 Ottawa Charge will take on the No. 6 Minnesota Frost on at 2 PM ET.

Tickets are currently available for purchase via Ticketmaster.

Months after Napheesa Collier set the WNBA ablaze with her viral exit interview criticizing league leadership, the Minnesota Lynx star said "nothing has changed" at the front office level as CBA negotiations stall.

"The conversation has been had now [and] people are seeing that changes need to be made," Collier said this week from Miami, where Unrivaled 3×3 is gearing up for its second campaign.

"I feel confident in the [union] and where we are internally with our players and the future," she continued.

In her October press conference, Collier publicly called the WNBA front office "the worst leadership in the world," putting commissioner Cathy Engelbert in the hot seat amid tense CBA negotiations with serious implications on next season's play.

The league and the WNBPA are currently sparring over revenue sharing, with diverging compensation expectations further distancing the two sides.

"Obviously, there's frustration in that both sides are trying to get what they want, but we still have that fire within us that we're willing to do what it takes," Collier said. "We're going to do whatever it takes to get what we think we deserve."

As talks drag on, Collier sees Unrivaled — the offseason 3×3 league she co-founded with New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart — as fueling the players' fight.

"Us being here in December and January until March, it's a crucial time in the CBA," Collier acknowledged.

"Having us all in one place is beneficial," she explained. "To have players congregate in that way, where you can have those in-person conversations and updates like that, that does help to get things moving more quickly."