The 2026 Sports Power Brunch: Celebrating the Most Powerful Women in Sports
awards will take place in San Francisco, California, on Wednesday, February 4, 2026, during the week of Super Bowl 60. Emmy award-winning host and NBC Sports broadcaster Maria Taylor tops the list of women slated to be honored.
Taylor has hosted NBC’s ‘Football Night in America’ since 2022 and is the network’s lead studio host for its NBA and WNBA coverage. As one of the most dynamic women in sports, she has also handled hosting duties for several high-profile events, including the Olympics, the Super Bowl, Roland-Garros and the Met Gala. Taylor will be recognized as one of the driving forces in sports at the seventh annual Sports Power Brunch.
‘You work really hard in an industry that’s dominated by men. You never know when you’re gonna have an opportunity to be celebrated in a way that makes you feel good,’ Taylor shared with USA TODAY about being a 2026 honoree. ‘It means everything.’
This year’s event, hosted by ESPN’s Elle Duncan (with Monica McNutt on purple carpet duties), will celebrate women who continue to break barriers and lead with vision, purpose and power. Through the theme, ‘Power Shift: Women’s Economic Impact on Sports’, the Sports Power Brunch will shed light on the transformative influence of women and how they are redefining the business of sports in everything from leadership to media to innovation.
NFL senior vice president of global brand and consumer marketing Marissa Solis, Athletes Unlimited Softball League commissioner Kim Ng, San Francisco 49ers chief people officer Harpreet Basran, Golden State Warriors senior vice president of marketing Amanda Chin and Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon, will also receive awards.
Over the last decade, women’s sports have blossomed with increasing viewership numbers and more investment. Taylor gave the example that just four years ago, the NCAA Division I women’s basketball tournament could not use the March Madness branding. Though that has since changed, the NBC Sports host noted that this was one of the first major shifts in steps toward gender equity and valuing a special and unique product. Investment in gender equality has continued to extend into other areas, including television, where there are more women as directors and producers or in front of the camera.
‘You can’t be ignored. That’s where I think we’re getting to,’ she said. ‘It’s so spectacular, phenomenal ― you can’t ignore it anymore. You can’t ignore the excellence that women bring to sports.’
‘We’re seeing it on so many different levels that girls can wake up, turn left, and be like, ‘I would like to work in football,’ and there’s a role. You can turn right and be like, ‘I would like to play in the WNBA,’ and you know that is a viable option. Not only that, it can be fiscally responsible for you, too. You’re not just being like ‘I want to play for the love of the game.’ You can play because you’re gonna get paid and have health insurance and maternity leave and all of these things.’
Taylor believes that as the business landscape of sports changes and more women are fighting for what they are worth, it isn’t just about existing; the goal should be growing. Taylor has been keeping a pulse on the ongoing WNBA CBA negotiations, one of the biggest stories in women’s sports this year. She says the women who are negotiating right now have the right mindset.
In her opinion, the things they are asking of league leadership and seeking in negotiations, ‘says that women hold the power.’ Taylor said it’s seemingly one of the first times in the history of women’s sports where that’s is the case. She says they have to do ‘whatever it takes to hold on tight.’ In that same vein, as women’s sports continue to grow, Taylor said it’s important to stay true to the history of the space.
‘One thing that I think we have in men’s sports, you know who Red Auerbach is … You’re gonna know who Dr. J is and all those. I hope that our Dr. J’s and Sheryl Swoopes’ and Lisa Leslie’s ― all the people that we didn’t have the time or bandwidth or capacity to pay attention to when they were in their prime, that we just remember them as we move forward and just continue to honor them.’
