Just A Minute: It's About Time NCAA's Gender Inequality Issues Were Dragged Out Into Open
There was a disappointing story in the news yesterday regarding college sports, one that didn't get the attention it deserved — and I'm not talking about how the Big 12 and Pac-12 commissioners met to talk about a possible alliance or joint scheduling.
This was in basketball. The NCAA announced that an external review found it had treated women's games unfairly, both undervaluing and underfunding them for years.
No one was surprised by this.
That's the disappointing part, because everyone already knew it was going on.
This isn't to suggest that women's basketball is on par, or should be on par with the men's game in terms of popularity, because it isn't. March Madness is both outstanding and a cash cow as the primary source of funding for the NCAA and its membership.
It's disgraceful that the growth of the women's game was deliberately being stunted to keep it from interfering with that. Its athletes had minimal equipment in the weight room, less effective COVID-19 tests and poor quality food at the NCAA championships in San Antonio.
Compared to the setup for the men, it was embarrassing.
The 113-page report by a New York law firm (Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP) found evidence of "systemic gender inequity issues" at the NCAA, which is simply not acceptable.
Among the changes it suggested was for a combined Final Four tournament, with games on four days instead of two.
You have to wonder, why aren't they doing that already?
Christopher Walsh's commentary Just a Minute regularly appears on BamaCental.
