Senator Tina Smith, a Minnesota Democrat, calls on the NCAA to launch an independent inquiry into why the women’s teams were so blatantly inferior to such male counterparts – and why it cost a viral TikTok and national outrage to step into the association.
The senator’s letter, addressed to NCAA President Mark A. Emmert and obtained by BuzzFeed News, is the latest and most important call for the NCAA to account for the divergent conditions between men and women athletes in March Madness tournaments. .
“Although the history of different levels of support and resources to men’s and women’s athletics has been a long problem, the biggest differences were in the quality of the facilities and weight rooms, swag and food provided to players and teams this year,” said Smith. written in her letter.
Smith called for an independent inquiry to explain why the inequality occurred and give recommendations on how to avoid it in the future.
“Women’s athletics are often not supported in the same way as men,” she wrote. “The NCAA must not act in a way that reinforces these inequalities, but must actively work against them.”
Outrage arose last week when photos surfaced of the men’s weight room – complete with benches, weights and equipment – filled shelves – as well as those of a single dumbbell rack and mats provided to the women’s players.
Sedona Prince, a player from the Oregon Ducks, posted a viral TikTok about this.
The NCAA at first claimed that the difference in the equipment provided was due to lack of space – but athletes quickly pointed out that the single rack weights sit in a large, empty room.
The initial statement only sparked outrageous reactions on social media, which Dan Gavitt, NCAA’s senior vice president of basketball, later apologized to the athletes and coaches of the women’s teams for throwing the ball on the weight rooms in San Antonio. dropped. “
By Saturday, the athletes had a room full of weight equipment to use.
But the initial difference only prompted athletes to show other ways in which men’s and women’s teams were treated differently throughout the tournament, from the food to the weak bags provided to the players.
Smith called these differences ‘very worrying’. She also pointed out reports that the men’s teams received the ‘gold standard’ in COVID-19 tests, while players for the women’s teams received antigen tests, which may be less accurate.
“Although both tests are important tools for the selection of COVID-19, they should be used by both women’s and men’s teams on an equal basis,” the senator wrote. “Along with these differences, a clear picture of the depreciation of the women’s players, teams and the tournament as a whole is presented.”
The senator also criticized the NCAA’s social media accounts, which she said portrayed the men’s tournament as the “main event” and the women’s games “as an afterthought.”