NCAA to use 'March Madness' to Help Market Division I Women's Basketball Tournament

[ZagDad84]

From ESPN:

NCAA to use 'March Madness' to Help Market Division I Women's Basketball Tournament
Mechelle Voepel
ESPN.com

Two moves by the NCAA on Wednesday should allow increased opportunities for collaboration and cross-promotion between the Division I men's and women's basketball tournaments, as well as making the two championships more financially equitable.

Starting this season, the term March Madness will also be used in marketing and branding the NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament. In addition, a new budget format has been implemented for the men's and women's basketball tournaments.

Changes were sparked in large part because of recommendations made in the NCAA's gender equity report released in August. The law firm of Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP was commissioned by the NCAA to do the report after controversy arose last spring about the unequal treatment of the men's and women's basketball tournaments, including a huge disparity in the workout facility available for the women's teams.

You can read the entire article here: https://www.espn.com/womens-college-...all-tournament

Title IX took effect June, 1972 and in 2021 we are finally getting to this point.

About time NCAA.

ZagDad

[AirborneJag]

The NCAA has historically been long on talk and short on action. It’s continuous self-serving pronouncements are nothing but false promises and are calculated to tamp down the overall unfairness of the system they have created and desire to maintain. Not too unexpected when you considered who is the current president. I will withhold judgment on the NCAA’s proclamations until this year’s tournament and we see if the facilities and other arrangements for the women are equal to or better than the men’s since last year’s they were, in a word, shameful.

[SkipZag]

Lots of work ahead to make things even close…. From putting fans in the stands to front page verses the fifth page.
As we see all the time, putting 3 to 5 hundred in the stands isn’t going to cut it…. So how do you put fans in the stands? How do you sell what is a great game of basketball to the public?
Money talks…. So until the public starts supporting women’s sports, things can’t and won’t be equal. And that is sad… because all of us that have supported women’s sports for many years can tell you, they are GOOD! And deserve more….

Go Zags!!

[ZagDad84]

I am not as against the NCAA as many on this (and particularly the Mbb board) are.

To have to be in control, set standards and guidelines and manage around 450,000 student athletes over what 40 different sports only a couple of which make any money, you are in a no win situation. Somebodies, somewhere are always going to be not happy. For the most part, the NCAA has done a decent job, not perfect, but decent for the vast majority of the 450,000 student athletes. Can we find instances in Fbb, Mbb and Wbb, particularly, where the ball has been dropped, sure, sometimes in great fashion. But when taken as a whole, the NCAA has not done that bad of job and considering they return far and away the vast majority of the money they earn with March Madness to their member schools, I can live with the Oops. Can they make improvements? Without a doubt and hopefully this is a start.

Have their been some hiccups along the way, certainly. Has the NCAA appeared to have a different standard for big-name (blue blood, money generating, etc.) institutions as opposed to the no name institutions, Yup and certainly not acceptable.

In the non-revenue producing sports it is easy to create parity between the men's and women's sports. It becomes much more difficult (read costs money) to equate the big revenue generating Mbb March Madness and the very little revenue generating Wbb March Madness. Last year, having to be in the bubble, brought the huge disparity between the Mbb and the Wbb tournaments despite the insistence that the two committees were in constant contact and communication. The bright light of the spotlight forced the NCAA to commission a gender equity report by the law firm of Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP.

With the release of the report showing the numerous ways the NCAA did not even attempt to have equalize the experiences between Mbb and Wbb ranging from gift bags, to hotels, to food and exercise equipment and so on. I think there is a lot hope that things will improve for the Wbb tournament this year. Equal to the Mbb March Madness, I doubt it, but much better than in past years, I have faith it will significantly improve.

We will see come March.

ZagDad