An investigation by USA Today was published in the last few days into the spending differences between men's and women's teams of equal sports (not football but, men's/women's basketball, soccer, swimming, tennis, track). It found significantly more funding for men's teams than women's teams... Today's reality is more challenging to allow for a resource disparity
in non-revenue/Olympic sports, such as soccer, swimming, or track which the
revenue made by men is about the same as women.
About NCAA money: Let's also consider money from the NCAA March Madness tournament beyond the institutional level: the NCAA has much to blame with how it funds its revenue distribution from the men's March Madness tournament. The NCAA awards roughly $160 million per year based on success from the men's tournament, but nothing ($0) based on success from the women's tournament. In addition, for years the NCAA has undervalued the women's side of the March Madness tournament as much as $100 million, and as such as received significantly less more dollars from selling the media rights than possible if properly valued, marketed, and sold (undervalued at $34 M per year instead of possibly $112 M per year). The NCAA states it is enacting changes by showing policy on paper, but unfortunately this does not equate to policy in action. Lack of immediate action by the NCAA is inexcusable.
Congressional action: Unsurprisingly, Congress isn't pleased at the lack of progress at gender equity among NCAA and member institutions' athletics programs. Three Congresswomen have announced introduction of legislation to investigate the NCAA and provide policy recommendations to overhaul gender equity issues. The pressure is on the NCAA leadership to CHANGE how it does business.
All of this speaks volumes to the organizational leadership in making
decisions of the historical "white boy" network at our nation's
institutions of higher learning, and moreover the machismo male-egocentric nature of
intercollegiate athletics. It's a problem (if not illegal) with respect
to the nature of Title IX, the federal law which requires equitable opportunities in
education regardless of sex. At the very least, the historical actions
that have not changed in college sports through to today fall far short of the intent of the law to make access to
opportunities (and resources) equal in education
for men and women.
A big thanks to Oregon's hoop star Sedona Prince, who showed up the NCAA by demonstrating its true colors of shafting women's teams by illustrating unequal weight rooms and meals in last year's March Madness tournament. The sad thing is: it should not take a women's basketball player's experience to change a system led by educators and leaders who are trained in equity, diversity, and inclusion. Shame on these leaders who know better.
It is long overdue to change the paradigm of
decision-making at the top of our ivory towers (and the NCAA) to value equity FIRST
in sports both in opportunity and resources. We expect equity,
diversity and inclusion in our culture, and in our society... In our
system of education, it's not only expected: it's the law.
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