Blog Post #2
Maddi Stewart
PS 101
Blog Post #2
7 April 2022
Blog Post #2
At the beginning of March Madness in 2021, both the NCAA Division 1 men basketball players and the NCAA Division 1 women basketball players arrived at their respective “bubble” which contained amenities provided to the players by the NCAA. However, what the women found in their bubble compared to the men’s bubble was vastly different and completely unequal. For instance, the weight room was much smaller, they received smaller pre-packaged meals, less reliable COVID-19 tests, and their “swag bags” were not as impressive. After pictures and videos surfaced of this embarrassingly unequal treatment, complaints began to arise across social media platforms that explained how atrocious and unfair these NCAA Division 1 female athletes were being treated.
After pictures and videos were released on social media that showed the different treatment the women basketball players received during the time of March Madness, it became clear that the NCAA had some explaining to do and things needed to change. Being a female athlete myself, it makes me upset and frustrated to see other female athletes being treated with such disrespect. These female athletes deserve to be given the same opportunities that the men are receiving. I do not care how much revenue the men’s basketball teams are bringing in compared to the women’s basketball teams. It is blatant disrespect to these female athletes. They have worked hard to get to where they are today and to continue to have issues such as this shows how much further we still need to go in order to gain certain aspects of equality.
One of the first posts to go around social media was a side-by-side comparison of the women’s weight room and the men’s weight room which was posted by Stanford sports performance coach Ali Kershner. In her caption, she explained that this issue needs to be addressed and that these women deserve to have the same opportunities as their male counterparts. Kershner finished off her post by stating, “In a year defined by a fight for equality this is a chance to have a conversation and get better.” (Levine, 2022). Another post that showed the inequality was a video posted on Tik Tok by Sedona Prince, a female basketball player at the University of Oregon, once again showing the difference in the weight rooms. She captioned the video, “It’s 2021 and we are still fighting for bits and pieces of equality.” (McCluskey, 2021). After the NCAA received backlash that stemmed from these posts, Lynn Holzman, Vice President of the NCAA, made a statement that argued the reason the weight room was much smaller was due to a lack of space, however, in Prince’s video, she showed a large, vacant area right next to the women’s so-called “weight room”. Other people such as Steph Curry, Sabrina Ionescu, Kyrie Irving, and A’ja Wilson offered support for the women’s teams on social media as well (McCluskey, 2021).
In order to try and “fix” this issue, what first needs to happen is an apology needs to be sent out on behalf of the NCAA to these female athletes. This apology will show that the NCAA recognizes their mistake and will hopefully try and change other aspects of this tournament in years to come. The NCAA also needs to change what was mentioned in the social media posts, the weight room, the meals, and the women’s “swag bags”. Even though this does not “fix” the gender issue, it is a start to show that the women basketball players deserve to have the same opportunities as the men basketball players.
Since the March Madness gender debacle happened last year, some of these issues have already been corrected, such as expanding the women’s tournament to 68 teams and allowing them to use the phrase "March Madness” which was once only allowed for the men’s tournament. Other changes that have been made for this year are that the “swag bags” will be the same and fan events that are held during the Women’s Final Four will be more similar to the men’s. The only problem that remains is the TV rights and revenue disbursement of the women’s tournament versus the men’s tournament; however, the NCAA did make a statement explaining how they spent millions more on the women’s tournament for this year’s March Madness. I expect that the NCAA will continue to try and make the women’s tournament and men’s tournament more equal, as far TV rights and revenue disbursement, as the years go on. Those two things are not something that can be changed immediately, therefore, we have to continue to speak up in order to see the changes those female athletes deserve.
Works Cited
On Her Turf. 2022. 2022 March Madness: NCAA announces changes one year after weight room controversy. [online] Available at: https://onherturf.nbcsports.com/2022/02/28/2022-march-madness-ncaa-basketball-gender-equality/ [Accessed 6 April 2022].
Baccellieri, E., 2022. One year after a March Madness gender reckoning, what has really changed? - Sports Illustrated. [online] Sports Illustrated. Available at: https://www.si.com/college/2022/03/18/ncaa-womens-tournament-equity-2022-daily-cover [Accessed 6 April 2022].
Levine, G., 2022. Opinion | NCAA's March Madness sexism won't be fixed with a better weight room. [online] NBC News. Available at: https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/ncaa-march-madness-drops-ball-women-s-basketball-sexism-outrage-ncna1261775 [Accessed 6 April 2022].
McCluskey, M., 2022. NCAA Accused by Women's March Madness Players of Unequal Treatment. [online] Time. Available at: https://time.com/5948127/sedona-prince-womens-basketball-march-madness/ [Accessed 6 April 2022].