With the 2025 WNBA Draft wrapped, a number of big NCAA stars found new homes in the league Monday. But a notable name stayed off the draft board, as TCU center Sedona Prince’s name did not get called on draft night.
Despite being a dominant 6-foot-7 center — a rarity in the league — Prince was a controversial draft pick from the start. Prince has been accused of sexual and physical abuse from multiple ex-girlfriends and partners. If that wasn’t enough, there were also concerns about Prince’s age — she’ll turn 25 in May — and her injury history.
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But even with Prince’s baggage, many outlets still had her going in at least the second round. Yahoo Sports projected Prince would be the final pick of the first round.
Instead, Prince’s TCU teammate, Hailey Van Lith, was a first rounder, going No. 11 overall to the Chicago Sky. Then another teammate, TCU guard Madison Conner, was selected in the third round by the Seattle Storm. But no teams were seemingly willing to gamble on Prince.
If she had been drafted, Prince would have been an unconventional rookie in the WNBA. She has spent seven years in college across three teams, joining TCU as a graduate student in 2023 after being granted multiple NCAA waivers. Prince has also suffered multiple key injuries, including a broken leg while competing for the U18 U.S. national team ahead of her freshman season with Texas.
Her age seemed to be a sticking point with WNBA general managers as Prince would have been one of the oldest players to be drafted to the W. One anonymous general manager told ESPN last week the “humongous gap” between Prince’s age and her opponents’ made it difficult to tell whether it was a factor in how good she was.
“She’s like a 24-year-old playing against, what, sometimes 18-year-olds?” the GM told ESPN. “She’s older than some W players. And so it’s just hard to tell, ‘Are you that good, or are you just dominating people that are, like, literally, four and five years younger than you?'”
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Add to that the far more concerning reality of the allegations against Prince, which date to 2019. Four women have accused Prince of misconduct over the past year, including two accusing her of sexual misconduct, and two ex-partners accusing her of physical abuse.
More than 200,000 people signed a Change.org petition asking TCU to remove Prince from the team, but the school did not take any action against the center. Instead, Prince, alongside Van Lith, helped lead the Horned Frogs to their first Elite Eight in program history.
Prince’s draft stock got a few boosts during TCU’s March Madness run: She scored 21 points in the Horned Frogs’ Sweet 16 win over Notre Dame, averaging 15 points per game throughout the postseason run. But she also played horribly as TCU fell to Texas in the Elite Eight, scoring only four points and fouling out halfway through the fourth quarter.
In the end, it doesn’t matter exactly why Prince wasn’t drafted. Although multiple GMs indicated interest in the center when speaking anonymously to ESPN, none of them drafted her. That alone speaks volumes.
