Rachel Bachman

New York

Senior Sports Reporter at The Wall Street Journal

Senior sports reporter, @WSJ. @SJI_Update alum.

Articles

The SEC Launches Its Latest College Sports Power Grab

1 week ago | wsj.com | Rachel Bachman

As the sport braces for a summer of upheaval, college football’s richest conferences are making a play for more voting power and more guaranteed playoff spotsThis was already shaping up to be a seismic summer for college sports. For weeks, officials have been bracing for a multibillion-dollar antitrust settlement that will launch the sport into a new era in which colleges will share revenue with the athletes who help generate it. Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
She’s Softball’s First $1 Million Pitcher-and She Could Be the Last

2 weeks ago | wsj.com | Rachel Bachman |Laine Higgins

NiJaree Canady’s transfer from Stanford landed her a seven-figure payday and has Texas Tech in an NCAA softball super regional. But lucrative deals like hers could soon be doomed. The Texas Tech softball team is just two wins away from the Women’s College World Series for one spectacular reason. It has a pitcher worth $1 million. Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
The Woman Who Got Fans to Pay $3,900 for a WNBA Ticket

3 weeks ago | wsj.com | Rachel Bachman

When Jess Smith took over as president of Golden State’s WNBA expansion franchise in early 2024, fans approached her with one request: Please make it cool. “They wanted the premier sports experience—in women’s sports,” Smith said. No minor-league vibes. No being overshadowed by the men’s team. Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8Subscribe NowAlready a subscriber?
The Rapid Rise of ‘Illegal’ Running Shoes

4 weeks ago | wsj.com | Rachel Bachman

More runners are going for models with huge, cushy soles—even though some run afoul of racing rulesWhen a new breed of super shoes hit the distance-running scene nearly a decade ago, they turned the sport on its head. No one was prepared for the Nike shoes with chunky soles injected with a carbon-fiber plate to suddenly make runners more efficient and so much faster. As other brands scrambled to catch up, world records were tumbling left and right. Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
The Rapid Rise of ‘Illegal’ Running Shoes

4 weeks ago | wsj.com | Rachel Bachman

The governing body of running, World Athletics, scrambled to rein in the Frankenshoes. One rule capped a shoe’s sole thickness, or “stack height,” at 40 millimeters—about 1.6 inches. But recently, something strange has started to happen. Shoe companies started going over that limit, again and again, on purpose. Soles are now rising like cheese souffles, and runners are snapping up the super-sized shoes—even if they carry the risk of being disqualified from races.
Exclusive | Trump Considers Executive Order on College Athlete Payments After Nick Saban Meeting

1 month ago | wsj.com | Josh Dawsey |Rachel Bachman |Laine Higgins

NCAA sports have dramatically transformed since policy changes that allow students to cash in and transfer more easilyThe Trump administration is considering an executive order that could increase scrutiny of the explosion in payments to college athletes since 2021, after the president met with former Alabama coach Nick Saban, White House officials said. Trump met with Saban on Thursday night when he was in Tuscaloosa to deliver the University of Alabama’s commencement address.
The 75-Year-Old Woman Who Has Become the Most Powerful Figure in College Sports History

1 month ago | wsj.com | Louise Radnofsky |Rachel Bachman

With the NCAA and athletes on the brink of a historic $2.8 billion settlement, one judge is calling all the shotsThe most powerful person in college sports history isn’t a conference commissioner or an NCAA president. It’s not even Teddy Roosevelt, who reformed football in the early 1900s following a rash of deaths on the field. Instead, it’s a 75-year-old federal judge who has degrees from two schools—and never scored a touchdown or sank a jump shot at either one.
USA Track & Field Dominates the Olympics. It’s Also Been Bleeding Cash.

1 month ago | wsj.com | Rachel Bachman

In recent years, the sport’s governing body has lost money and laid off staff. Now, three years from the Los Angeles Games, it’s canceling meets and under outside review. No Olympic team on the planet is more decorated than USA Track and Field. Its athletes have won 862 medals at the Summer Games, which is more than most countries have won across all sports combined over more than a century.
UConn Wins NCAA Women’s Basketball Title

2 months ago | wsj.com | Rachel Bachman

It had been nine years since the program with more titles than any other had lifted the national championship trophy, the longest dry spell since Geno Auriemma took over as coach in 1985. For other schools, nine seasons without a title would count as a minor inconvenience. For UConn, it counts as a full-blown crisis. Making matters worse, the Huskies were forced to watch another program take their place at the top of the sport.
The College Basketball Star Who Received an NBA Education

2 months ago | wsj.com | Rachel Bachman

But as UCLA center Lauren Betts has discovered, it also comes with a specific problem: There’s almost no one who can match up with you in training. Back when Betts was a teenager, she settled on a solution. In addition to working out with the best women players she could find, she honed her game by practicing against a small and exclusive group of people who think a 6-foot-7 basketball player is nothing out of the ordinary. She trained with NBA players.

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Rachel Bachman @Bachscore

9 May 25

FIFA announces expansion of the 2031 Women's World Cup, to be held in the US, to 48 teams. Even before the expansion, and when the US was bidding on 2027, organizers projected it would generate $3 billion in revenue. (from 2023): https://t.co/EcUTd2x5GX

Rachel Bachman @Bachscore

9 May 25

NEW: After chunky super shoes debuted nearly a decade ago, rulemakers set a limit on their sole thickness: 40 millimeters. But then something strange happened: Brands started making ‘illegal’ shoes—on purpose. https://t.co/oE7vSu6JEe

Rachel Bachman @Bachscore

8 May 25

https://t.co/7DJyhXlXzN