Let’s discuss the NCAA and how they disrespected every women’s team in the March Madness tournament.
The NCAA clearly prioritized the men’s teams when planning the annual March Madness tournament and received a lot of backlash after women’s college basketball players exposed the organization’s actions. You’ve probably heard about the issue on TikTok from Oregon’s Sedona Prince; the player went viral after sharing the women’s “weight room” at the tournament: a stack of yoga mats, and a set of dumbbells up to 30 lbs., versus the men’s: a large, full weight room with a variety of equipment. After Prince spoke out, the women were granted an updated weight room, a much more adequate space for them to work out as a team. If you followed Sedona Prince on social media after her viral take on the issue, you’ve caught onto numerous ways that the NCAA has neglected the women’s teams compared to the men’s.
The food served to the women’s teams was extremely inferior to the men’s cuisine. Women were given plastic containers with pre-portioned meals while men’s teams enjoyed buffet-style, with greater variety. Even the ‘swag bags’ that the NCAA provided players with contained many more goodies for men’s teams. If you missed the viral photos, you could find them on AJ McCord’s Twitter.
The women’s lack of equal accommodations didn’t stop there. Media coverage played a large role in the women’s disparities. Brenna Greene posted a video on Twitter of the NCAA’s digital media hub, which holds all the March Madness tournament photos. At the time of Greene’s post, the hub had many first-round photos of men’s games; however, ZERO PHOTOS OF WOMEN’S GAMES.
Many social media users quickly defended the NCAA’s actions to justify that women’s teams do not generate as much revenue as the men’s, thus not receiving the same accommodations. Men indeed produce more revenue for the NCAA, but maybe stronger advertising for women’s games would fill that gap!
I’ve already mentioned how the women do not get nearly as many photos taken and/or posted on the media hub. Still, even the tournament’s branding is different between the two! According to Alex Azzi, every men’s court for the tournament is labeled center-court with a large “March Madness” logo, while women’s courts do not. Even the trademarked Final Four logos differentiate between the men’s and women’s teams. Men can proudly represent March Madness, but the women’s teams are given merchandise, branding, and broadcasting with the specific logo that says “Women’s Final Four.”
If the women’s logos emphasize WOMEN’S, why do the men’s not say “MEN’S”? Why did the NCAA not put nearly as much effort toward the women involved in the tournament, and does this happen every year? Luckily for female athletes, the problems (as many as there are) have been brought to light, and the NCAA will hopefully change their actions moving forward. But for now, the NCAA has made it clear that they do not care about the women involved in the March Madness tournament by all around doing the bare minimum for the athletes.