According to a progress report released Wednesday, the NCAA has addressed nine of the 23 recommendations for creating an NCAA tournament experience comparable to male and female basketball players.
The largest governing body for college sports has hired a third party to evaluate its reaction to a bitter report issued almost a year ago that criticized gender inequality. In a tournament.
Among the most visible changes in the progress report are the increase in “March Madness” branding and cross-promotion in 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 have jointly rejected the proposal to hold a final four in the same city at the same time, and NCAA leadership will not change the Division I basketball management structure. I decided that. That is, Lin Holtzmann, Vice President of Women’s Basketball, continues to report to Dan Gabit, Senior Vice President of Basketball.
Meghan Durham, NCAA’s Associate Director of Communications, told The Associated Press by email that an outside company was hired to carry out the assessment and the NCAA respects the company’s request that it not be identified in accordance with company policy. rice field.
“The results of this assessment show our commitment to promote gender equality in the NCAA Championship. Thanks to our spirit of cooperation, we have achieved great results over the past year,” said NCAA Marke. President 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 look 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 with dissatisfaction Showed disparity between men and women Weight training facility, foodLounge Area, Gifts — Encourage apologies from NCAA executives.
The NCAA was unable to support its efforts for gender equality by prioritizing men’s cash cattle tournaments “over everything else” and by presenting recommendations established or considered by the NCAA, according to Kaplan’s report. It is about.
The progress report states that the female player has addressed an issue that has attracted attention. And in addition to improving the brand, NCAA has increased its full-time staff to work on women’s tournaments. Improved communication between men’s and women’s basketball committees. 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 will the issue of gender equality be addressed.
The progress report also noted that the NCAA will increase the women’s tournament budget for 2022 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 raised 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 tied to a media rights agreement between CBS and Turner in the men’s tournament.
The Women’s Tournament is part of a package that includes more than 20 NCAA Championships owned by ESPN and paying about $ 34 million annually from 2023 to 2012. However, women’s tournaments are worth $ 81 to $ 112 million annually from 2025, according to a team of sports media and marketing experts on Kaplan.
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Other AP Women’s College Basketball: https: //apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https: / /twitter.com/AP_Top25
