The league, founded by Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, has plenty of Huskies.
The opening games of Unrivaled, the first-of-its-kind, professional 3-on-3 women’s basketball league, is set to get underway on Friday with seven former UConn players representing across six teams.
The league, viewed as a pioneering effort in the expansion and promotion of women’s basketball, has been in the works for some time. It was originally founded by Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier in July 2023 but the identities of the six teams — Mist, Lunar Owls, Laces, Phantom, Rose, and Vinyl — only became known in November 2024.
Now, the first season is set to tipoff on Jan. 17 and run through March 17, the date of the league championship.
With $35 million in backing funds, the league is expected to pay out its 36 players (six players per team) almost $250,000 each along with league equity and revenue shares. Funding has come from all corners of the sports world, including the likes of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Carmelo Anthony, Alex Morgan, Coco Gauff and UConn head coach Geno Auriemma.
“Clearly, the easiest and most truthful answer for me is my confidence in Stewie and Phees,” Auriemma said about why he invested in the league. “Those two people, as people and their character, who they are, and the people that they’re involved with, when they came to me and said, ‘Hey, this is what we want to do,’ I’m investing in the two of them.”
Stewart will play for the Mist while Collier will play for the Lunar Owls, with both acting as captains for their respective teams. The other five UConn alums playing in the league include Tiffany Hayes (Laces), Stefanie Dolson (Laces), Katie Lou Samuelson (Phantom), Azurá Stevens (Rose) and Aaliyah Edwards (Mist).
Stewart and Collier’s vision is clear: Keep the country’s best stars home during the offseason. WNBA players commonly travel overseas in the league’s offseason to stay in shape and continue to earn a paycheck. Motivation for the league’s inception can be traced back to February 2022, when WNBA star Britney Griner was detained in a Russian federal prison for almost 300 days. Limiting those situations will help protect the safety of the league’s top hoopers moving forward — and also limit the wear and tear on their bodies.
The schedule’s opening weekend will feature action for all six teams. Tonight, Stewart’s Mist will take on Collier’s Lunar Owls (7 p.m. on TNT) while the Rose will play the Vinyl (8 p.m. on TNT). On Saturday, Jan. 18 the Phantom will square off against Laces (2 p.m. on TruTV) while Lunar Owls will return to action to play the Rose (3 p.m. on TruTV). The full schedule can be found here.
As the season unfolds over the next two months, the four best teams will earn a spot in the postseason. Along the way, the league will implement the likes of a 1-on-1 tournament — one thing basketball fans have longed to see at the professional level — where fans can watch the best of the best compete for a $200,000 cash prize.
Unrivaled has worked to capitalize on the recent popularity boom of women’s sports, specifically women’s basketball. Nonetheless, the league hopes to see much of the same viewership numbers that college basketball and WNBA have enjoyed in the past year.