MARCH MADNESS: The Madness within the Madness

Hi! I know I haven't blogged in a little while, but I wanted to give an update on March Madness. I don't know how many of you have been watching March Madness (the men's and women's post season basketball tournament) but this is the first year they have called the women's tournament "March Madness." This change was made after many years of inequality. The inequality was brought to mainstream attention by Sedona Prince last year. Sedona plays for Oregon Ducks basketball! Take a look at this viral Tik Tok.

Sedona Prince Tik Tok

So basically she pointed out the differences between the women's and the men's weight rooms at the tournament. After it went viral other athletes chimed in about tons of other differences like food, and gear, and courts that the games were played on, the list goes on and on. The way that male athletes are treated is much different than the way female athletes are treated, even the name of their tournament was different. The NCAA made lots of excuses, but the NCAA's excuses were not accepted so they had to do something. Over the summer the NCCA had a report done looking into all the inequalities and what they could do to change it. (I linked it at the bottom) Lots of information came out of the report but the NCAA decided to not listen to a lot of it, and only react to parts of the report. One suggestion they did accept was to change the name of both tournaments to "March Madness." They also gave better weight rooms and gear (well a little better gear) to the women.

But as I was watching this year I noticed two big things. Number one: the courts. As I said before both tournaments are now called "March Madness." So you would assume that both genders would get courts that said "March Madness" or at least some type of decoration telling you that this is a special tournament on them. But no, the men get a new court for every round that have "March Madness" branding and that say what round of the tournament it is. The men also have banners around the stadium celebrating the round and "March Madness." The women play at the highest ranked team's court that doesn't have any signs on it saying that it is a special tournament. The women do have "March Madness" sign that is projected on by ESPN, so if you were at the game you wouldn't see anywhere that this was March Madness. Here is an example of the two courts, I took the picture from my TV so they aren't the best quality. I also want to say that once the women's tournament got to the sweet sixteen stage (or the third stage) they got similar courts to the men.

(above court on left)

This is the men's there is a lot (Above court on right)This is the women's, it is the UCONN

of march madness gear and it court, even though neither team is UCONN and

looks different than the normal there is nothing for March Madness on the court.

court.

The second thing that is different about the two tournaments is how you can watch them. For the men it is on CBS and TBS, but for the women it is on ESPN. CBS and TBS is free but to watch ESPN you have to have a streaming service. I know that broadcasting companies buy the rights to the tournament ahead of time, but when people talk about how the women's tournament is not making the same amount of money as the men's they need to realize that we are not allowing them to have the same chance to grow their sport. We are limiting the amount of people who can watch the games and the amount of games that are on TV. The women cannot grow their sport without the help of you. Watch the games speak out and tell other people to watch the games and post and talk about their games.

I want to give some shoutouts though, Buick created a ad (https://youtu.be/Q8LQojlqTkw) about the amount of coverage for women's sports. Adidas created shirts for the colleges that they sponsor talking about title IX. On the front it says "More Is Possible" on the back it has the first part of Title IX. (picture below) Also although the women's games are on ESPN, they are mostly on ESPN not ESPN 2 or ESPNU. They are also at primetime. Candace Parker and Degree created a Bracket Gap Challenge. Here is a short video explaining it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9U318JUjno

** I know this is a lot of information, so reach out if you want more information or have questions or other information.**

The Report: https://ncaagenderequityreview.com/

Breaking it down (and easier to read :) : https://www.si.com/college/2021/08/03/ncaa-review-gender-inequity-mens-womens-basketball