Daniel DonehueFor the first time this year, the term March Madness was officially used in the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament. That sounds ridiculous — people have said March Madness since the NCAA Women’s Tournament debuted in 1982 — but the official use of the expression was previously limited to men’s games.
Unleashing the official use of March Madness is NCAA’s basketball for women following last year’s tournament blunder, where the Tik Tok video became viral and revealed inequality between men’s and women’s weightrooms and perks. It is one of the accommodations we brought. The video showed that the women’s weight room consisted of a free weight single rack and several yoga mats. Other important differences between the male and female teams, such as food bags and swag bags, were also revealed. Following that was NCAA’s external gender equality review by law firm Kaplan Hecker & FinkLLP.
In the report, the authors were engaged in the NCAA’s “beneficial efforts to address women’s college basketball (and generally college athletics) inequality,” including the 2013 White Paper. “Very often, these efforts ended up just sitting on the shelves.”
2022 tournament
“From the good points of my view, I was very encouraged by the improvements I saw,” says Daniel M. Donehue, Managing Director of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA). “This includes enhanced branding, ESPN’s enhanced efforts to cover and promote the game, the ability of 68 teams to participate in tournaments, and the use of march madness.”
This year’s tournament included expanding the field from 64 teams to 68 teams. One of the teams in that qualifying round was Howard University, which won the first tournament game in program history and advanced to 64 rounds. Other changes include a fairer swag bag, better catering, and a more comfortable lounge at the Final Four.
Howard Bison head coach Thai Grace says the mood for the first match was great. There was a lot of gratitude, especially among the players, for the use of March Madness, and the logo was everywhere. She says she felt the NCAA was trying to make up for last year.
“It was obviously a big deal to be able to win the match in a tournament,” says Grace. “There were fans from all over the country. The Howard community was very proud. My team was delighted to be there.”
Lisa Fortier, head coach of women’s basketball at Gonzaga University, has participated in big dance seven times as a head coach and several times as an assistant coach. She generally says that this year’s tournament was better than the last few years in some respects.
“Sure, marketing, changing rooms and hotel signs seem to have improved significantly,” says Fortier. “Obviously, the use of March Madness is a lot of pomp and circumstance, but it really made a difference to our players.”
Fortier points out that watching games on TV has improved. Anyone who wants to see everything, not whiplash coverage, can do so. She said the food was plentiful, but she wasn’t particularly impressed and seemed to have made efforts to increase gender equality.
Title IX status
Title IX, enacted 50 years ago in June this year, states that it is a federal civil rights law and that educational programs with federal financial support cannot discriminate against the allocation of these funds based on gender. I am. The NCAA website states: “Title IX requires equal treatment of female and male student athletes.”
Although Title IX has been a law for half a century, many universities are not compliant, and a closer look at the numbers reveals that even institutions with vibrant women’s athletic programs are quite inconsistent. I understand. Champion Women, a non-profit organization that provides legal advocacy for girls and women in sports, has developed the Title IX 50 by 50 project (titlenineschools.com), which shows the number and gender gaps by school.
Nancy Hogshead-Makar
“I don’t think any woman in the American NCAA sport was keenly aware of all the issues,” said swimming champion woman and Olympic gold medalist founder Nancy Hogshead-McCarl. say. “In the last 17 years, the gap between men’s and women’s sports has widened by 27%. Over time, gender discrimination in sports between colleges will not be resolved.”
One obvious example is the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament Media Contract. It exists independently while women’s tournament contracts are bundled with other men’s and women’s championships. The distribution of revenue received in the Part 1 Men’s Tournament to affiliated institutions is based on the winning and losing records of each school.
Because the media rights for women’s tournaments are bundled with other events, NCAA will not distribute the money received for media rights based on basketball records at individual institutions. This is not what Hogshead Macar says, “women are the way men can,” we won this for our school. ” “
“Representatives are important,” says Grace, one of the 12 black female head coaches in the women’s tournament. The percentage of black athletes definitely exceeds the number of black coaches. … I am honored to be one of the women these young women can do. I respect … and want to see more. “
For the future
Interviewed with the Kaplan Hecker & Fink report, Fortier works within WBCA. Over the past year, she has spent a lot of time discussing what to do over the phone and in meetings.
“There was a debate about the difference between equality and fairness, and what it should look like,” says Fortier. “How do we help student athletes defend themselves and advocate that they and our games make things more equitable?”
“I still have something to do,” she continues. “Not as much as it used to be, but that’s enough.”
The Knights of Inter-University Athletics, an independent thought leadership group, promotes what CEO Amy Perco calls a “much more fundamental concept.”
“The NCAA’s revenue distribution must be value-based distribution based on its basic principles,” Perko says. “The NCAA distribution has a value-based component. Our organization has long promoted that academic incentives should be officially included, which NCAA adopted in 2016.
“Regarding the performance-based components of the distribution … NCAA officials only reward success in men’s basketball tournaments,” she continues. “The changes we propose state that gender equality is basically an NCAA principle, so that principle should also apply to revenue sharing. If there is a performance-based component of athletics. , That component must provide equal rewards to male and female teams. “
Hogshead-Makar says the NCAA can sign a television contract specific to the Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament and allocate income from that contract in the same way that men’s income is allocated. Indicators such as graduation rate and Title IX compliance can also be taken into account.
“All spending decisions are gender equality decisions because of gender segregation in sports,” says Hogshead-Makar. “Equal means equal …. Power Five schools have no financial justification for not giving equality to women.”
Donehew also cites the negotiations for a broadcast agreement. The current term ends in August 2024. It is important that women’s tournaments are valued by market value. She says it’s also time to showcase a second piece of unit allocation for basketball performance.
“From our expectations, I don’t think the distribution of units should be equal to the male counterpart, but it needs to be meaningful,” says Donehue. “The distribution will signal the importance of men’s basketball success and the importance of women’s basketball success to our conferences and campuses.”
Perko states that it is still essential for the NCAA to address gender inequality. Revenue distribution inequality must be dealt with more urgently than it is today, although there are changes depending on the circumstances surrounding women’s basketball tournaments.
“If college sports remain tied to their educational objectives, it must include and operate all aspects according to gender equality,” Perko says.
This article was originally published in the April 28, 2022 edition. Diverse..
