Why wasn’t Sedona Prince taken in the WNBA Draft? For teams, it was a question of risk versus upside

The final time Sedona Prince exited a game in her seven-year collegiate career, she was met with cheers as she walked past the scorer’s table and down the bench.

It wasn’t a swan song in the way many seniors are pulled early for a career-ending ovation of appreciation. The 6-foot-7 center fouled out with six minutes to play in TCU’s Elite Eight loss to Texas at Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama, last month. And while many Horned Frogs in attendance applauded her efforts, others in the arena and watching from their homes or local bars celebrated.

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To them, it was the conclusion of a frustrating year wondering why Prince, who faces allegations of sexual and physical abuse from multiple former partners, was playing at all. At a few coffee spots around the Birmingham arena the week of the NCAA regionals, fans in various teams’ apparel spoke openly with each other about not wanting to see Prince earn a spot at the next level. More than 200,000 signed a Change.org petition to remove Prince from the TCU team. It continues to gain signatures.

Prince became an icon and household name whose fandom extended far beyond sports reaches in 2021 when she exposed the inequalities between the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. That status is also why her fall from grace makes her a polarizing figure whom teams in the WNBA might be wary of adding for the potential public fallout.

Prince did not hear her name called as one of the 38 players selected in the 2025 WNBA Draft on Monday night in Manhattan despite entering the week as a projected second- or third-round pick. She is a free agent whom any team can sign to a training-camp contract ahead of the season tipoff on May 16. Prince has not been charged with a crime and has denied the allegations.

Much like her final moments in the college ranks, her draft absence was met with joy from many online fans. To them, it was finally a win. As the WNBA gains speed and collects more fans, the core fanbase remains the same. The league is built on activism, an important tenant for many supporters who often prefer the league forge its own path rather than follow the more established men’s leagues. Just because college football players are drafted into the NFL with sexual-assault accusations or charges attached to their names, doesn’t mean fans of women’s leagues want that to be their standard.

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There is also a significant LGBTQ fanbase that largely takes domestic-violence accusations seriously and recognizes the unique barriers survivors of abuse endure to share their stories. The group once celebrated Prince as a change-making icon representing them proudly on a national stage. Easily recognizable due to her height, she delighted fans during person-on-the-street interviews at the 2022 Minneapolis Final Four. They now fill those same social media channels with disdain.

It’s difficult to imagine a team that drafted Prince wouldn’t feel the backlash of the decision. Prince’s status became a major storyline of the draft, and any team’s front-office or coaching staff, as well as its players, would have faced incessant questioning about the addition. And that’s for a player who might not make the final roster cut in a league that rarely sees players beyond the first round stick in their rookie year. If a team is interested in seeing her in camp, it could be wise to sign her when the hubbub has died down closer to or during the season.

If there were more upside to the selection, it might make sense to take a flyer in the draft and feel the potential wrath. It’s not unprecedented for a WNBA player to be involved in a domestic-violence incident. Brittney Griner and Glory Johnson, her then-fiancée, were involved in an incident in 2015. They faced seven-game suspensions. Riquna Williams was suspended 10 games in 2019. After a second incident in 2023 while with the Aces, she was left off the roster. The charges were dropped, but she is no longer in the league.

The difference for Prince at this stage, fair or not, is she hasn’t proven herself a dominant player the way Griner, the Mercury’s No. 1 overall pick in 2013, or Williams, a microwave scorer and two-time WNBA champion, did. At her age (she turns 25 before the season), there are questions about whether her scoring and rebounding at the collegiate level was more due to experience and strength over 18-year-olds. At her rare height, she should be more dominant. In her final game against Texas, she scored four points while missing three of her four shots. Even in the game prior, a 21-point, 50%-shooting outing against Notre Dame, the Irish’s 6-3 forward Maddy Westbeld got the better of her in their first-half matchup. The Sky selected Westbeld with the No. 16 overall pick on Monday.

The WNBA is growing into a major professional sports league on par with the major men’s ones. As such it will be more likely that front offices make similar decisions that prioritize skill over baggage. In this particular case, the blowback might have outweighed the potential.