March Madness has been a crowning example of how great the NCAA can be.
The men’s tournament draws in millions of viewers per year as everyone watches the drama, excitement and heartbreak.
The women’s game, though, has been consistently mistreated by the NCAA and viewers. That may not seem the case at LSU where the women’s team has a lot of hype surrounding it and is breaking records.
The LSU’s women’s team has garnered the support of the whole state with Kim Mulkey’s electric attitude and fashion sense and Angel Reese’s tough play on the court. The team here has all the support it needs to continue to grow and become one of the best programs in the nation.
In March, as women’s history month, it’s interesting to see how the NCAA fails to support the women’s game as much as it does the men’s.
From underfunding games, to not building proper weight rooms in the bubble and making teams play in a hotel conference room, the mistreatment of women’s basketball by everyone has been disappointing to read about.
For example, a report published in 2022 by the NCAA itself reveals that men’s teams receive twice as much funding as women’s teams.
This is seen across all sports and is simply unacceptable for the women that work just as hard as the men to play the same game. Both programs need to be equally funded.
During the times of bubble play during the COVID-19 pandemic, teams were in need of gyms or work out rooms wherever they were staying, to stay in shape for the upcoming games.
The men’s teams walked into nice expansive gyms and large weight rooms with everything they could have needed to make sure they were physically right for the tournament.
The women’s weight room was a couple of dumbbells all under 25 pounds and a few sanitized yoga mats.
This incident sparked outrage all over social media as people learned how the women were being mistreated during the time of bubble play. The women’s teams also were given pre-packaged meals while the men were given chefs with full buffets.
The bubble was the turning point for the women’s game, and while the treatment has improved, there is still much work to do.
Just this season at the Las Vegas Invitational, Indiana and Auburn played against each other in a hotel conference room. More ridiculous than that was the inadequate seating. A small group of chairs were placed on one side of the court, allowing little space for fans.
These are just a few of the many instances that the women’s game has dealt with over the years. The NCAA, spectators and organizers of events must do better.
The women’s game has everything it needs to grow. It just needs the support of the NCAA and fans alike to continue to grow the great game of basketball in universities around the states.
