Lacrosse NCAA Tournament Scheduling is Latest Example of Unequal Treatment of Women's Sports
Scheduling for the women's lacrosse NCAA Tournament is a flat out joke and is the latest example of how women's sports are not provided the same treatment as their male counterparts. Both the men's and women's lacrosse NCAA Tournaments are in the quarterfinal rounds, but how the games are scheduled could not be more different.
The four men's quarterfinal matchups are spread out over two days. Virginia vs Georgetown starts Saturday, May 22nd at 12:00 p.m. Eastern. Rutgers vs North Carolina starts at 2:30 p.m. the same day. The time slots are the same for the other two games on Sunday, May 23rd. Duke vs Loyola starts at 12:00 p.m. while Maryland vs Notre Dame starts at 2:30 p.m. Two and a half hours in between games. Two on one day, two on another. Spaced out to allow fans to watch each game in its entirety.
Now take a look at the women's quarterfinal matchups. All four are on the same day, Saturday, May 22nd. That in and of itself is not necessarily the problem, but look how games are scheduled. North Carolina vs Stony Brook starts at 12:00 p.m. Northwestern vs Duke starts at 1:00 p.m. Syracuse vs Florida starts at 2:00 p.m. Notre Dame vs Boston College starts at 3:00 p.m. Just one hour in between start times. That means game cannot be viewed in its entirety without missing parts of other games. Sometimes this is inevitable with the abundance of games, such as the first round of the NCAA Tournament in basketball. That is not the case here with only four games. It was figured out for the men, but not for the women. In the same round of the postseason tournament with the same number of games. This is simply inexcusable even if we ignore the fact that the men are on ESPNU while the women are on ESPN3.
This is just the latest example of how women's sports are not treated the same as men's. Look back to the disparity between men's and women's "weight rooms" for their respective NCAA Tournaments for basketball. Or the women’s golf regional that was cancelled even though the course was playable but not “playable at a championship level.” Whatever that means.
You could even look at the women's basketball ACC Tournament vs the men's. The first two rounds of the women's ACC Tournament were shown on ACC Network Xtra, which is less available and in some cases more difficult to find, rather than the ACC Network. The entire men's ACC Tournament was on the ACC Network and not ACC Network Xtra. There was no conflict between the two either, as they took place on different weeks. The ACC Network, instead of the live women's conference tournament, had programming such as a 2012 Duke vs North Carolina men's basketball game.
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These are all examples from this year alone. The only way things will change is if we speak up about them. It should not be happening in 2021.
Women's lacrosse is an incredibly entertaining sport. The players are tremendous athletes. The games are competitive and fun to watch. I encourage anyone who enjoys sports to watch and give it a chance. I've become a fan of the sport and will watch as much as I can beyond just covering Syracuse. I started watching more of it because of my job covering the Orange. In order to help grow the game and give it more exposure, even the same exposure that the men enjoy, scheduling like this cannot continue. This type of scheduling suppresses the game. Diminishes its chance to grow.
It is time to stop treating women's sports like second class citizens in the sports landscape. Correcting things such as this women's lacrosse's NCAA Tournament scheduling problem would be a good place to start.