DAILY BS BULLETIN:
- OutKick founder Clay Travis has dramatically raised the stakes in his long-running challenge to the WNBA, offering $10 million if the defending champion Las Vegas Aces can defeat a boys’ high school state championship basketball team of his choosing.
- Travis says the game would be broadcast on pay-per-view, with all proceeds donated to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, while the $10 million would go to the winning side.
- The challenge has reignited the debate over biological differences in sports just as the WNBA enters a new era of record salaries and unprecedented popularity.
CLAY TRAVIS UPS THE ANTE: $10 MILLION IF WNBA CHAMPS CAN BEAT A BOYS’ STATE TITLE TEAM
OutKick founder Clay Travis says he’s no longer talking about a hypothetical.
He’s putting up $10 million.
On Monday, Travis challenged the defending WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces to face a boys’ high school state championship basketball team that he would select, saying the winning side would receive $10 million—the largest single-game prize ever offered for a basketball game.
“Important announcement,” Travis wrote on X. “I am upping my offer, $10 million dollars for a head-to-head basketball game between the defending WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces and a boy’s high school state title team of my choice.”
“If the Aces beat my team, I will give them $10 million.”
He later expanded the proposal.
“If the boys win, I will give them $10 million to distribute as they see fit to their team members. Game on pay-per-view with all profits donated to Tunnel to Towers to provide mortgage-free homes to families of deceased soldiers, police & first responders.”
The challenge revives an argument Travis first made in 2023, when he offered $1 million for a similar matchup.
At the time, Aces star Chelsea Gray dismissed the proposal with a one-word response on social media: “Dumbass.”
Former NBA guard Patrick Beverley also defended the WNBA, arguing the women’s game is far more physical than many fans appreciate.
“They are way more physical than men,” Beverley said on his podcast. “These WNBA girls are skilled.”
The central claim behind Travis’ challenge isn’t new.
Supporters argue that elite boys’ high school teams—often featuring future Division I and NBA talent—would have significant physical advantages over even the best women’s professional teams because of differences in size, strength, speed and explosiveness after puberty.
That reality has long been reflected in international sports, where women’s national teams in soccer, hockey and basketball have occasionally scrimmaged against elite boys’ teams as part of training.
Whether that translates into a guaranteed outcome against a WNBA champion is another question—one the Aces have shown no interest in answering.
The WNBA is coming off the most transformative labor agreement in league history, with a new collective bargaining agreement expected to deliver more than $1 billion in player salaries and benefits over seven years. Average salaries are projected to top $583,000 in 2026, while maximum contracts could eventually exceed $2 million annually.
The Aces also remain one of the league’s marquee franchises, led by MVP A’ja Wilson and entering a new financial era created by exploding television ratings, attendance and sponsorship revenue.
So far, neither the Aces nor the WNBA has publicly responded to Travis’ latest offer.
Online reaction has been predictably divided. Some sports fans applauded the challenge as a straightforward test of biological differences in athletics. Others argued the contest would prove little beyond what most people already understand—that top teenage boys with Division I talent possess physical advantages over adult female athletes—and would unfairly place the WNBA in a no-win public relations situation.
For now, the $10 million remains on the table.
DBS WIRE SOURCES:
- Mediaite: Clay Travis Offers to Pay WNBA Champions $10 Million If They Can Beat a Boys’ High School Basketball Team
- OutKick: Clay Travis Offers $10 Million For WNBA Champion Las Vegas Aces To Play Boys High School State Champion
- Sports Illustrated: Chelsea Gray Fires Back at Clay Travis After Original WNBA Challenge
- YouTube (OutKick):
- WNBA: WNBA and WNBPA Reach Historic New Collective Bargaining Agreement
