Fairy tales aren’t real. But if they were, then No. 10 seed Virginia might be the closest thing the women’s NCAA Tournament has to a Cinderella. Playing the role of fairy godmother in this story would be Reddit co-founder, multimillionaire and 2005 Virginia alum Alexis Ohanian.
The Hoos have been the biggest surprise of the postseason — the first team to advance from the play-in round to the Sweet 16, and the only team left standing that was truly a bubble team on Selection Sunday. And yet, here they are, still dancing — with a matchup against No. 3 seed TCU on Saturday — and the prime example of what it looks like to build a program, and build quickly no less, during the NIL era.
Last season, Virginia was on the outside looking in during March Madness, its seventh year in a row without an NCAA Tournament bid. Coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton was in her third year and slowly rebuilding the program after taking over a five-win program. The Hoos finished 2024-25 with a winning record for the first time in seven years, so there were signs of life, and athletic director Carla Williams was confident in the program’s direction. But in a college sports landscape where college football rules all — and with a Cavaliers football program in the middle of a rebuild as well (the Hoos won their first bowl game since 2018 this past season) — there’s only so much money to go around. Outside investment is key.
In today’s age, programs need catalysts — preferably one with many zeroes at the end. For Virginia women’s basketball, that was Ohanian, who poured lighter fluid all over this program in late 2024 with a “transformational” multiyear gift — per Sportico, it was more than three-quarters of a million dollars every year over the next four years — to the women’s basketball program intended to help “boost recruiting and retention.”
“It’s time to bring the nation’s best hoops talent to Charlottesville and win some championships in the next four years,” Ohanian said in a statement released by the university after his donation.
Money plays a bigger part than ever in the equation of winning in college sports. Either through revenue sharing or name, image and likeness deals, top talent gets top dollar. With a transfer portal that allows for immediate movement, there’s always another program that might offer more, and that’s not always the driver for player movement, but money is now a necessary factor in college sports.
Last season, in one of the most active transfer portal seasons yet, Virginia retained two of its top three players, Kymora Johnson and Paris Clark, while bringing in four players from the transfer portal who’ve become the top six players in the Hoos’ rotation this season.
“With Alexis, we were just so thankful for him coming in last year and helping us with some of our resources,” Agugua-Hamilton said. “It allowed us to recruit — allowed us to retain and attain. You need that, in this day and age, with the way collegiate athletics is moving. You have to have donors, you have to have support, you have to have financial resources in order to compete.”
Through this season, even with the financial resources boosting the Cavaliers, the benefits weren’t immediately translating onto the floor, ping-ponging between highs and lows before ending the season with a three-game skid.
Agugua-Hamilton knew progress would be slow. She had taken the UVA job ahead of the 2022-23 season after leading Missouri State to consecutive NCAA Tournaments, including the 2021 Sweet 16.
Many in her circle advised against the job. But Agugua-Hamilton, a Virginia native who grew up during the program’s heyday of Debbie Ryan’s mid-1990s stretch of deep tournament runs — believed in the program’s foundation. Virginia’s athletic director’s background as a college player and coach, as well as its affiliation in the ACC, were other selling points.
But her memories of Dawn Staley carrying the Hoos to Final Fours? Those were ancient history.
“Obviously, I knew it was a rebuild, and I was up for that task,” Agugua-Hamilton said. “I had to rebuild the culture, the players. I had to rebuild the community. There was not a fan base at that point. … We had to rebuild the resources, which we’re still doing. All of that stuff. We were so behind.
“But I never regretted my decision.”
The uphill battle got steeper as collegiate athletics went from collectives dominating NIL to the NCAA attempting to legislate to Congress’ involvement. Money wasn’t exactly pouring into Virginia women’s basketball’s slow rebuild.
Ryan, who now works in Virginia Athletics fundraising, knew money would be a part of the challenge.
“People aren’t used to giving money to women’s basketball, so a lot of them just don’t,” Ryan said.
Revenue sharing became the law of the land ahead of last season with donor money becoming a secondary source for roster building.
Ohanian had wanted to donate before, he has said, but the university wanted to wait for legislation to pass.
“As soon as that switch was flipped, and the judges ruled, I called up, I said, ‘Hey, I want to make UVA a contender, let me know what to do,’” he told Front Office Sports.
Virginia coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton said Alexis Ohanian’s donation has been a game-changer for the program. (Courtesy of UVA Athletics)
After the Hoos’ home opener last season, Ohanian visited the locker room and told the team he planned to invest in them.
“I was just super grateful,” Agugua-Hamilton said. “He didn’t even know me before that. And he’s putting his belief in me to lead this program and also the players that we can recruit. He really believes in his school. He really believes in women’s basketball. So, I just felt honored that he felt that way.”
It wasn’t Ohanian’s first foray into women’s sports investment. He was the lead investor in Angel City FC and he’s a minority owner of Chelsea Women. He launched Athlos, an all-women pro track series and is bringing League One Volleyball to Los Angeles. He’s married to tennis legend Serena Williams, who, he said, actually tried to talk him out of investing in women’s sports because she had seen how broken the industry had been and didn’t think it could change.
“For decades, people have said to support women’s sports for society, for feminism,” Ohanian said in a recent Sports Illustrated Q&A. “But when you win with capitalism, you just drop the mic.”
Ohanian has been vocal about how these investments are smart financial moves, but his investment in Virginia women’s hoops signals a shift. There is no return on investment for a college basketball team that can be measured in a bottom line on a financial ledger. And Virginia women’s basketball isn’t going to appreciate in the same way professional women’s sports franchises have boomed in recent years.
So, Ohanian’s Virginia investment might not be a win for capitalism. But it’s a win for UVA women’s hoops. It’s not unlike how billionaire Mark Cuban helped transform Indiana football from Big Ten mediocrity into national champs. The Hoosiers committed to the right coach and put up the foundation first, but Cuban’s money helped secure and retain a roster that made Indiana elite. And then, the national title came.
Could that be the next step for Virginia? The Hoos are still dancing, and if they get past TCU on Saturday, they’ll have a date in the Elite Eight, most likely against South Carolina. Staley, who is one of four players who has her jersey retired at Virginia, built South Carolina into a national power during the pre-NIL era but has continued the program’s dominance, and as Agugua-Hamilton and Virginia chase those top-tier programs, they know they have all the pieces in place to do so, including crucially, the financial part.
“There are a lot of factors — having great coaching, coaches that care about the student-athletes and that the student-athletes want to play hard for, along with the resources to build the roster, those things are really important,” Carla Williams said. “Knowing that coach (Tony) Bennett and our men’s program won a national championship in 2019 pre-NIL, knowing that you can do that here at UVA, and understanding that committing to the rev share, committing to NIL, gives our basketball program a chance to compete at the highest level.”
The Hoos have been given the chance to compete at the highest level. Now, they must prove they can turn that into their own ROI.
