The NCAA’s March Madness tournament features teams from all over the nation, with brackets for both men and women. Though the amenities offered to the women were incomparable to what the men were given. One of the many examples of this inequality is how the men got a complete gym about the size of your average LA Fitness, while the women received a couple of yoga mats and a set of weights. See for yourself.

Shocking, right? The Vice President of Women’s Basketball for the NCAA, Lynn Holzman, released a statement addressing the issue they created. Summarized, the NCAA said the reason for such a big disparity between the gyms was because of the limited space due to the COVID-19 bubble set up for March Madness. The organization also said that it had originally planned to increase the gym space that the women had access to once they found more space. Those yoga mats and weight sets sure were a good short-term alternative.

Imagine being a student-athlete who dedicates their time and energy to play sports on the national level without payment and getting treated unfairly because of your gender. The March Madness tournaments are the biggest tournaments in college basketball.

Treat your student-athletes with some respect.

Sadly, the disparity between the men’s and women’s gym facilities wasn’t the only display of blatant sexism seen during this March Madness event.

When I say March Madness, I am talking about both the men’s and women’s tournaments. With the NCAA, this wasn’t the case. The women’s tournament wasn’t advertised as such and neither were their facilities branded that way. Despite both tournaments being identical in every way besides different teams qualifying, the NCAA did not brand the women’s tournament as March Madness. Terrible, considering the fact that March Madness is such a well-known tournament and its name alone draws so many viewers. Why didn’t they name the women’s tournament as such? Well, the only obvious difference is because their players were women, not men.

Both the men’s and women’s players received swag bags full of sporting gear and other related items. However, the contents of the swag bags furthered the inequality based on gender. And it was noticed. WNBA player A’ja Wilson tweeted an image comparing the two swag bags; basically, the men’s players got significantly more items, most of which were higher quality.

When receiving meals from the NCAA, the women received significantly worse meals compared to the men’s meals— another example of how the NCAA failed its student-athletes who they seemingly value so much. The men got a whole buffet, while the women received a small takeout box-sized meal.

There are many arguments that can be argued for the NCAA based on the viewership, money brought in, and overall popularity. However because of Title IX from the NCAA, it simply states that under no circumstance, a student-athlete be discriminate because of the basis of their sex, especially in regards to the money brought in for the NCAA. Upon reading this, you can see how the NCAA loves to enforce their rules on colleges, but not follow their own rules. The article states:

“Title IX requires the equal treatment of female and male student-athletes in the provisions of: (a) equipment and supplies; (b) scheduling of games and practice times; (c) travel and daily allowance/per diem; (d) access to tutoring; (e) coaching, (f) locker rooms, practice and competitive facilities; (g) medical and training facilities and services; (h) housing and dining facilities and services; (i) publicity and promotions; (j) support services and (k) recruitment of student-athletes.”

I can name quite a few of the provisions where the NCAA didn’t give their female student-athletes equal treatment. I guess the rule-maker is allowed to be a rule-breaker.

To further point out the hypocrisy of the NCAA and how much they “care” about their student-athletes, here is a part of their overall mission statement:

“As a non-profit organization, we put our money where our mission is: equipping student-athletes to succeed on the playing field, in the classroom and throughout life.”

Sure, the NCAA uses most of its money as scholarships for their student-athletes, but what does it say if you give someone a full-ride to play basketball and then treat them less than other players? That you only want them for their athletic skill? Here I thought the NCAA wanted its students to succeed on more than just the playing field.

The NCAA isn’t equipping its student-athletes to succeed on any of the levels it mentioned. Based on the fact that the organization treated the women’s basketball players as if they were not important in comparison to the men’s basketball players just goes to show their lack of care for the student-athletes that it claims to support.

Eventually, the NCAA did give the women players equal amenities to the men. They got a proper gym, cooler swag bags and better meals, but this is only after they got exposed for their sexism. The NCAA needs to not make a stupid, unethical decision in the first place. That’s when the organization starts to actually care about their student-athletes and treat them like the dedicated humans they are.

Logan Sriharatsa can be contacted at srih1201@stthomas.edu.