Dawn Staley and Tara VanDerveer ask Congress to help equity fight in NCAA sports

[Carnac]

South Carolina's Dawn Staley and Stanford's Tara VanDerveer on Tuesday called for Congressional involvement regarding the NCAA's treatment of its tournaments for women' sports, including basketball, in the wake of allegations of gender inequity. In a video call with several members of the Democratic Women's Caucus, both coaches spoke about the differences specifically between the men's (Indianapolis) and women's (San Antonio) basketball tournaments that received criticism this spring.

Staley, VanDerveer ask Congress for inequity help

Dawn Staley and Tara VanDerveer called on Congress to make sure the NCAA publicizes the findings of a report it commissioned that is examining women's championships in all three divisions.

www.espn.com

 

[oldude]

I appreciate the effort to establish equity in women’s sports. But just as with NIL, this is an issue entirely controlled by the NCAA member institutions, the conferences and the NCAA itself.

Essentially, this issue is controlled by Stanford, SC and 100’s of other colleges and universities around the country. I have to wonder if Dawn & Tara shouldn’t start with the SEC & Pac-12 commissioners offices before asking Congress to intervene.

 

[CL82]

Essentially, this issue is controlled by Stanford, SC and 100’s of other colleges and universities around the country. I have to wonder if Dawn & Tara shouldn’t start with the SEC & Pac-12 commissioners offices before asking for Congress to intervene.

You aren’t wrong since the NCAA is ultimately controlled by it’s member institutions. Still the disparity shown in last years tournament was unacceptable and bespeaks an utter disregard for the needs of female student athletes.

While I agree with and support the issue generally, I thought this statement seemed a bit disengenuous:

First, the treatment of high school athletes is irrelevant to remedying in the gender equity disparity by the NCAA. That’s what that first half of that quote is discussing.

I would like to see the numbers for the second half of the quote. It seems like the speaker is talking about egregious be behavior. 90% is a big number right? But there are a whole lot of modifiers sentence. And first, it’s not 90%, it’s “almost 90%“. But what are “almost 90%”doing? “Offering disproportionately higher rates of athletic participation opportunities. OK that still seems bad, but disproportionate as to what? Oh well it’s disproportionate as to male students when compared to enrollment. So, I think she’s trying to say is that given that most schools have more female students than male students they should offer more scholarship opportunities to female students as an absolute number than they do to male students absolute number. Whether you agree with that proposition or not Title IX does not require that it requires equal participation.

Sorry for the bit of a hijack, but it’s a pet peeve of mine when someone uses deceptive language to the advance an otherwise legitimate cause. At best it is a distraction and at worst it undermines the otherwise legitimate points.

 

[VaConnFan11]

As olddude said, the schools are in full control of this. This should not even be a congressional issue.

No school is required to join the NCAA. If the school and conferences really wanted change, they would threaten to create a new organization and join it. They could have this issue resolved in 60-90 days.

 

[HopJim]

Not sure if the examples chosen by Dawn and Tara are the best for solving this issue. While the women were provided poor facilities, picking examples from a Covid influenced tournament may just give some of the decision makers an excuse. Would suggest focusing on consistent trends from past years to state the case.

 

[Alydar]

While I doubt the NCAA's investigation will settle anything it will be interesting to see the championship budgets for all other NCAA tournaments. Other than mens basketball I'd like to know where all the other discrimination is going on? I'll wager that a lot more money is spent running the women's tournament than most if not all other male sports championships. So the question is whether it's a gender issue or whether it's just the sport that generates the most income getting better treatment? I don't know but it's a valid question to ask.

 

[LwrcasefaN]

They must be really desperate to ask politicians to actually solve anything. Who has that much time to wait?

 

[cockhrnleghrn]

I appreciate the effort to establish equity in women’s sports. But just as with NIL, this is an issue entirely controlled by the NCAA member institutions, the conferences and the NCAA itself.

Essentially, this issue is controlled by Stanford, SC and 100’s of other colleges and universities around the country. I have to wonder if Dawn & Tara shouldn’t start with the SEC & Pac-12 commissioners offices before asking Congress to intervene.

I think it's a Title IX issue, so a congressional investigation isn't out of bounds, IMO.

 

[oldude]

I think it's a Title IX issue, so a congressional investigation isn't out of bounds, IMO.

You make a relevant point. But at some level, Dawn & Tara are essentially asking Congress to help achieve gender equity that the schools they work for and the conferences they represent won’t take the lead on. It’s kind of like complaining to your neighbor that your yard is a mess, and then asking him to clean it up.

 

[Cornell Lt]

Get politcians involved, yeah that's the answer :-(

 

[cockhrnleghrn]

You make a relevant point. But at some level, Dawn & Tara are essentially asking Congress to help achieve gender equity that the schools they work for and the conferences they represent won’t take the lead on. It’s kind of like complaining to your neighbor that your yard is a mess, and then asking him to clean it up.

The schools aren't doing it, so you start looking elsewhere.

 

[oldude]

The schools aren't doing it, so you start looking elsewhere.

That’s a bit like biting the hand that feeds you.

 

[JellyBean]

Yeah. I appreciate Coach Staley and Coach Vanderveer reaching out to Congress but that attempt is going to fall on deaf ears. Like someone already stated, it is going to be on each conference, mostly the Power 5 or 6, whatever the number is, to put some heat on the NCAA. If there is enough consistent pressure applied to the NCAA, there will be some level of balance moving forward.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

While I doubt the NCAA's investigation will settle anything it will be interesting to see the championship budgets for all other NCAA tournaments. Other than mens basketball I'd like to know where all the other discrimination is going on? I'll wager that a lot more money is spent running the women's tournament than most if not all other male sports championships. So the question is whether it's a gender issue or whether it's just the sport that generates the most income getting better treatment? I don't know but it's a valid question to ask.

Arguably the women's tournament probably gets treated much better than other sports, including perhaps some on the men's side. I also think there is a huge difference between covid and non-covid years. The Women's Volleyball tourney had some issues in the earlier rounds that did not seem very "cool" - of course there is nothing exactly comparable, but I don't think these issues apply in a normal year. Similarly, issues about the softball tourney that were raised date back over 20 years as to format, and Hall of Fame Stadium is unquestionably the finest venue in the country.

That said, I don't think the excuse as to "money making" is the be-all and end-all; unless the NCAA wants to publicly admit that the only sport that matters to them is men's basketball . . . Then why are they running any other championships - none of which necessarily show a profit. Basically - all should be treated equitably.

One thing to be recognized - the NCAA over the years has indeed done a decent job of getting other sport championships on TV - lacrosse, soccer, gymnastics, hockey and more are covered. That was certainly not always the case.