According to a progress report released Wednesday, the NCAA has addressed nine of its 23 recommendations to create an NCAA tournament experience comparable to male and female basketball players.
The largest governing body of college sports hires a third party, A bitter report published almost a year ago He criticized gender inequality in tournaments.
Among the most visible changes in the progress report are the increase in “March Madness” branding and cross-promotion for both 2022 tournaments, and the addition of four teams to the women’s tournament, “First Four”. The event has been created. Along the structure of the men’s tournament.
According to the report, the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Commissions jointly rejected the proposal to hold a final four in the same city at the same time, and NCAA’s leadership will not change Division I’s basketball management structure. I decided that. In short, Women’s Basketball Vice President Lynn Holtzmann continues to report to Basketball’s Senior Vice President Dan Gabit.
An external company has been hired to carry out the assessment, and the NCAA respects the company’s request that it not be identified in accordance with company policy, Meghan Durham, NCAA’s Associate Director of Communications, emailed the Associated Press. rice field.
“The results of this assessment show our commitment to promoting gender equality in the NCAA Championship. Thanks to our spirit of cooperation, we have achieved great results over the past year,” said NCAA Marke. Mr. Mart said. “We said that before — our work is not over. Gender equality needs to remain a priority for leaders of college sports as a whole and will continue to support these efforts. I’m looking forward to continuing. “
The first report, published in August, was produced by Kaplan Hecker & FinkLLP, which was adopted after the NCAA was unable to provide similar equipment to the team in the 2021 Men’s and Women’s Division I Tournament.
The tournament took place in a “bubble” for a pandemic, and players blew up social media. There was a gap between men’s and women’s weight training facilities, meals, lounge areas and gifts— A quick apology from NCAA executives.
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The NCAA was unable to support its efforts for gender equality by prioritizing men’s cash cow tournaments “over everything else,” according to Kaplan’s report, and issued recommendations made or considered by the NCAA. ..
The progress report states that the issues that female players have focused on have been resolved. And in addition to improving the brand, the NCAA has increased its full-time staff to tackle women’s tournaments. Improved communication between the Men’s Basketball Committee and the Women’s Basketball Committee. We have launched a program to identify and track areas that need to be the same, comparable and different in the experience of men’s and women’s tournaments. We hired a third party to produce an annual report on the Gender Equality Initiative. We have issued a statement on how or how gender equality issues are being addressed.
The progress report also noted that the NCAA will increase its 2022 women’s tournament budget by $ 6.1 million, adding another $ 1 million.
Among the areas underway: Hire full-time employees to focus on the issue of women and gender equality. Start a third-party evaluation of the progress of gender equality every five years. Emphasize new corporate sponsorship for women’s tournaments. Pursue promotional and marketing opportunities that benefit both tournaments. Women’s first four and “March Madness” coats and hoops in the first and second rounds have boosted brand awareness.
In the future, the NCAA aims to pursue the independent rights of women’s tournaments when existing media and marketing contracts expire in 2024, the report said. Distribution plan in line with the men’s tournament.
NCAA revenues exceeded $ 1 billion in the year before the pandemic, of which nearly $ 900 million was related to media rights transactions with CBS and Turner in men’s tournaments.
The Women’s Tournament is part of a package that includes more than 20 other NCAA championships owned by ESPN and paying about $ 34 million annually from 2023 to 24. However, women’s tournaments are worth $ 81- $ 112 million annually from 2025, according to an assessment made for Kaplan by a team of sports media and marketing experts.
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