I'm not a fan of this whole parity thing.

I'll admit, this feeling could be left over from the days in which I was supposed to be the equal of my older sister, but still got the smaller bedroom, all of her hand-me-downs and about one-sixteenth of the backseat on long car trips. But regardless, things are rarely as equal as they claim to be, and that goes for women's basketball too.

For the whole of the 2003-04 season, the chats on press row and the whimsies of coaches were abuzz with a conviction: This year, there is parity.

During the five-month haul of the season, it certainly seemed that way. Maybe, just maybe, players dreamed, the Final Four would be without any of its usual suspects.

And I'd be lying if I said I didn't jump on the bandwagon -- see "Tournament looks open for anyone to grab title," published March 19.

But as I listened to the ESPN commentators hype up the UConn-Tennessee match up as the faceoff of the two premier women's basketball programs in the nation and watched the Huskies claim their third straight national championship, it was more than apparent that this sport has still got a long way to go, before we can use the word parity -- with meaning.

Sure, Minnesota and LSU were in the Final Four this year, teams making their first-ever national semi-final appearance.

And no, I haven't forgotten about Notre Dame in 2001 or Purdue in 1999. But in the past decade, starting in 1995, the results are quite simple: Connecticut, Tennessee, Tennessee, Tennessee, Purdue, Connecticut, Notre Dame, Connecticut, Connecticut and Connecticut.

And in four of those finals, it's been Geno Auriemma and Pat Summitt at each others' throats.

Which is why, as Auriemma said, beating Tennessee was the most appropriate way for his players to be crowned three-time national champions.

"Nobody," Auriemma said on ESPN, "can say we backed into it."

Nobody can say they backed into it because, in this supposed year of parity, the final was still reduced to nothing more than the two teams of the uppermost tier going at it once again. Nobody can say they backed into it because it was Auriemma, now with five national titles, versus Summitt, with six.

And nobody can say they backed into it, because a team doesn't win three in a row simply by chance.

However much parity there seemed to be from November to February, however many upsets unranked teams pulled and however many times one of the premier programs supposedly choked, it's the end result that tells the story.

And when April begins, more often than not these days, it's UConn or Tennessee left standing.

That's not parity. Parity is not just four different national champions in 10 years. It isn't two teams pulling off three-peats.

Parity is something like eight different national champions in the last 10 years, as is the case for the men. Parity, for women's collegiate basketball, has yet to be achieved.

One of my trusty beat partners had the foresight to go into the UConn locker room, while we were in Hartford for the East Regional and ask junior forward Ashley Battle if she thought other programs had begun to even out the playing field. Giving some textbook answer, she seemed highly amused by the suggestion.

"If other teams are as good as us, I guess it's good for the game," Battle said.

"But you're not sold on it?" he asked.

"Nope," she said. "Not at all."

I'm not sold either.

A quintessential UConn-Tennessee final, and a third straight Huskies national championship later, it's pretty clear why not.