Observers of women’s college basketball have spent much of the year debating whether this season truly marked the arrival of parity in the game. Advocates of the notion pointed out that there were as many as 20 teams with legitimate title hopes, a big improvement over the usual two or three.

Parity detractors countered that the pool of contenders had expanded only slightly – perhaps to eight teams – but that we were a long way from a situation where 30 or 40 teams could legitimately harbor title dreams.

Tonight’s championship game between Baylor and Michigan State settles the debate in favor of the parity advocates. Baylor was ranked eighth in most pre-season polls; Michigan State started out even further off the radar at no. 15. Yet the Spartans (33-3, 13-1 against the top 25) and the Lady Bears (32-3, 10-2) have emerged as the two best teams, and they are striking in their similarities. They even used dramatic rallies from similar margins to earn their semifinal victories Sunday night.

Both teams are deep, well-rounded units that don’t rely on a single player or duo for their success. Each has a fiery coach – Baylor’s Kim Mulkey-Robertson and Michigan State’s Joanne P. McCallie – who is unafraid to make a controversial move. And each team is superb on both sides of the ball.

Michigan State is known for its defense (57 ppg allowed on 38% shooting), but the Spartans scored 39 points in the final 15 minutes to rally from 16 points down to beat Tennessee 68-64. Baylor averages 74 points per game, but in their 72-63 regional final win over North Carolina and their 68-57 win over LSU, they held two of the nation’s top offenses to more than 20 points below their scoring averages.

Indeed, it was Baylor’s defense that turned the tide in its semifinal game with LSU. After falling behind 24-9, the Lady Bears deftly switched to a 2-3 matchup zone to take away Tameka Johnson’s dribble penetration and cut off the easy passing lanes she had exploited early on. In addition, defensive stopper Abiola Wabara stepped up her play on AP Player of the Year Seimone Augustus, who led all scorers with 22 points, but made only 10 of 26 shots and committed four turnovers.

On the bench, Mulkey-Robertson made a gutsy move early in the game by sitting All-American Stefanie Blackmon in favor of reserve Emily Nieman. Nieman has a power forward’s body but a guard’s touch from long range. She hit her first trey, which opened driving lanes for leading scorer Sophia Young. Nieman then befuddled LSU with a variety of low-post moves en route to 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting.

Against Michigan State, Baylor will need all of these cylinders firing. The Spartans’ suffocating defense held Tennessee to only 7-of-23 shooting and forced 11 turnovers during their furious rally from a 45-29 second-half deficit.

But the Spartans also bring firepower to the table. All five starters can score, and the offense is remarkably balanced. Guards Lindsay Bowen and Victoria Lucas-Perry are potent outside shooters, Liz Shimek and Kelli Roehrig form a forceful inside tandem, and point guard Kristin Haynie led the Big Ten in assist-turnover ratio.

Michigan State’s primary goal will be to stretch the Baylor defense. The Spartans shot 40% from behind the arc to lead the Big Ten this season, and their inside players are ferocious rebounders.

In turn, Baylor will need Blackmon to respond offensively, and they’ll need Nieman and Wabara to match their outputs from Sunday, when they combined for 26 points. If Baylor point guard Chelsea Whitaker can count on four scoring options on the floor on every possession, then the Lady Bears should be able to overwhelm Michigan State’s tight matchup zone.

With the teams so closely matched in skill, it may come down to an intangible like poise under pressure. Michigan State took an early lead on Tennessee and became discombobulated when the officials decided to allow the Lady Vols to commit misdemeanor-level violence on the court. But they recovered in time to pull out the victory.

Baylor, meanwhile, never lost its cool against LSU, even when the Lady Tigers’ offensive machine looked as if it would blow them out of the building. Instead, they calmly continued to execute their game plan and climbed back into the contest.

That kind of heart, plus Mulkey-Robertson’s creative use of her deep roster, gives Baylor a slight edge in what should be a close, hard-fought game.

Regardless of who comes out on top, tonight’s game ends another season in which women’s college basketball continues to grow in mainstream presence. The hoops sabermetric community has embraced the game and developed distinctive player efficiency ratings, including the WNBA Efficiency Rating, the Prouty, and the ACC Rating.

The new metrics are proving immediately useful. For example, the new emphasis on efficiency rating has shown that while LSU’s Augustus was the best player on the team that spent the longest time at no. 1 for this season, her low shooting percentage and lack of 3-point range makes her less efficient with the ball than top players like TCU’s Sandora Irvin and Ohio State’s Jessica Davenport.

The increased exposure and attention to detail seems particularly vital as the women’s game was so much more than just UConn and Tennessee this season. But regression could be right around the corner. Tennessee made the Final Four despite having four highly regarded players injured. With a little bit of luck on the health front, the Lady Vols could make this year’s parity seem like a a one-hit wonder.

Tonight, however, the two best teams in the land – neither of which has ever reached this high before – will play a game for all the dark horses out there. It’s what the parity advocates have been waiting for all along.