Discrepancies in the Bubble/Treatment of men vs women (merged)

[RockyMTblue2]

Geno, CD and CW heard from:

“What’s happening at the NCAA level, I think, that’s a small sample of what occurs every single day on every college campus pretty much throughout this country,” Auriemma said. “We’re very fortunate at UConn, but it used to be that way. I spent 20-some years here battling the same things, whether or not we could get treated equally.

“Throughout the country, women’s coaches have battled to try to get what coaches feel are things that I need to be successful. There’s a big picture there that for a lot of coaches in women’s sports, not just women’s basketball, that work just as hard as any other coach in America, and are successful and are doing an incredible job, and they’re doing it with the resources that you would say are less than adequate relative to what the men might have. And that’s at every school.

“I don’t think [the NCAA Tournament bubble in San Antonio is] doing anything that you would say, ‘wow, that’s just completely out of the ordinary.’ It just follows with kind of the way things are, the way they’ve always been.”

UConn coaches, players call out NCAA over differences between men’s, women’s tournament bubbles

Athletes and staff participating in the women’s NCAA Tournament have taken to social media to expose the inequities between the men’s and women’s “bubbles” in Indianapolis and San Antonio. Here's what UConn's Geno Auriemma, Chris Dailey, Christyn Williams and David Benedict had to say about it.

www.courant.com

CD:

“I try to balance it with our players where, you’ve worked hard and you’ve earned this, and is it fair? No. But that can’t keep you from moving forward and presenting it to the public and giving it a platform that for somebody — it might not be you, it might be somebody after you — that’s going to benefit more. But that’s part of being a woman, and being in sports, and taking a stand and making a statement so that it may not always help you, but it’s certainly going to help someone that comes after you.”

 

[lenbo]

Why the differences? Simple answer, even if you don't like it, the men's tourney generates substantially higher $$$ from the networks due to significantly higher audience ratings. Simple economics to the NCAA brass, however, it gives them a big black eye in the tone def category.

Well, if that’s the rule, then that should be applied to USWNT soccer, cuz our women get higher ratings, in the us and internationally. I think the change has to start at the top, and not program the women’s tournament as a second priority, perhaps embed the scheduling of games and not wait to start two days later. Second big action would be to spend equal marketing dollars. Is March Madness (today) bigger for men because of quality of the product (wrestle, wrestle, dunk) or number of marketing dollars? I think I’ve seen literally 100s or 1000s of commercials for the men’s tournament but not sure if I’ve seen any for the women’s tournament, which is a shame, cuz people are missing quite a show.

 

[lenbo]

Revenue isn't profit. You have to INVEST to get a return. I'd say that there is quite a disparity between the $ amount invested in the Men's NCAA Tournament vs Women's NCAA Tournament. What would the Women's Tournament be today if the same $ were invested in the Women's Tournament as is invested in the Men's Tournament?

To be fair, we should also compare marketing budgets. If those marketing budgets were equal over a number of years, the top and bottom lines may reach equity, if looked at from a pure business angle.

 

[JJTB]

As an aside....Journal Inquirer Tournament supplement......11 pages on the men....3 pages on the women. Speaking of Dumbbells!

 

[LCConnFan]

Why is it that all of the speeches given by the administrators "tap dance" with 'careful' words about this atrocity? These are the people that need to get things changed..............NOT the players on a "platform'! I am disgusted with what UCONN's Athletic Director, David Benedict, had to say........"He echoed what others had to say, calling the weight room situation “ridiculous. It’s either an oversight issue, they just made a mistake, or there’s another unknown reason, which one would have to presume is monetary, Neither one is an excuse.” SERIOUSLY? What! Did his b_ _ _ s drop off? Oh yeah! There's also this 'tiny' matter about the COVID testing. "He (David Benedict) wasn’t thrilled with the testing discrepancies, either.
“I’m not sure why that is because I don’t think there’s any debate about the fact that PCR testing is much more consistent,” Benedict said. “I think the rate of false-positives with antigen is significantly higher than that of a PCR test.” It's probably the same testing type they used on Geno!

 

[GW15MJ4MM23]

Well, if that’s the rule, then that should be applied to USWNT soccer, cuz our women get higher ratings, in the us and internationally. I think the change has to start at the top, and not program the women’s tournament as a second priority, perhaps embed the scheduling of games and not wait to start two days later. Second big action would be to spend equal marketing dollars. Is March Madness (today) bigger for men because of quality of the product (wrestle, wrestle, dunk) or number of marketing dollars? I think I’ve seen literally 100s or 1000s of commercials for the men’s tournament but not sure if I’ve seen any for the women’s tournament, which is a shame, cuz people are missing quite a show.

.
Fans like Winners
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[UcMiami]

Ooops. I should have read ALL the posts in the thread before posting. Joni Taylor's statement puts a different spin on things, for sure.

Do you think the same phrase was in the men’s tournament book?

I think all that does is spread the responsibility down the line to all the athletic departments for participating teams in the women's tournament and especially those that were sending teams to both.

Starts with the NCAA who wrote two different handbooks.
Spreads to ADs like those at Georgia which actually read and understood the differences and said nothing and did nothing except quitely ship their own weight room to I assume a hotel room.
And then to those who were maybe blindsided when they arrived because whoever in their athletic department who really read the book didn't think it mattered, because, well, women.

 

[UcMiami]

A little humor in the middle of a very serious issue:

You know ... I just figured this all out. Not sure how Geno infiltrated the NCAA offices and got this women's handbook implemented, but it is yet another brilliant plan of his to distract his players from being affected by the tensions inherent in the NCAA tournament. Call TN The Evil Empire and Pat Darth Vader, squabble with Muffet, call out Duke students as just future waiters/waitresses at higher class restaurants, all designed to take the media focus off his individual players. He is a genius!

 

[j66kicker]

Tara talks tough...

 

[Artifact]

The NCAA really blew it when they made arrangements for the NCAA'a Final Tournament. The Men's team where given top shelve treatment in regards to quarters ,food & practice facilities. The Women team were given the bottom drawer Treatment . Yes, they made apologies & asked forgiveness. They give the impression that Women's basketball play is of little consequence & not serous like men. May I remind them that it was John Wooden , who said that it is the Women's game which is the only True basketball played, because of the teamwork necessary to score. The anatomy of the 'tendon of Archilles' of a girl is not made for leaping as in a male. It often appears that on many occasions that it nothing more than 2 passes & a 'slam dunk' .Team work ?

 

[oldude]

For what it’s worth, the NCAA has been moving weight training equipment into the WBB hotel feverishly over the past day or so. While it doesn’t change their initial tone-deaf ignorance, I guess it’s better late than never.

 

[MainefanSC]

The NCAA is embarrassed only because they have been called out for their carelessness. They planned this debacle and knew full well they were treating the women disrespectfully. Their contrite words ring hollow. The whole institution is insensitive to gender fairness. Nothing will change until the people in charge change. We have a clear picture of who they are at present and it's always been this way. Who do they think they are kidding by scrambling to make amends?

Go UConn! Pick up our men and show who has the ability to look beyond the naysayers.

 

[tomcat]

The big story of the tournament this year has to do with the incredibly different level of facilities provided to the men and women at this year's tournament. To cite just two examples, the men got a weight room with a full array of wrights and equipment. The women got one set of dumbbells and nine yoga mats. The men eat at buffets. The women get lunches in boxes.
It was so bad that Dick's Sporting Goods saw a PR opportunity and said they would send truckloads of equipment for the women.

Two NCAAs turkey named Lynn Holtzman (VP of women's Basketball Operations) Dan Gavitt (VP of Men's Basketball Operations) (wonder if any relation to the fabled Dave, hmmm?) apologized and said they "dropped the ball." Hell, they don't even know what the ball looks like.

Here's what Gavitt said:

"We have intentionally organized basketball under one umbrella (at the NCAA) to ensure consistency and collaboration," Gavitt wrote, per the statement. "When we fall short on these expectations, it's on me.

"I apologize to the women's basketball student-athletes, coaches and the women's basketball committee for dropping the ball on the weight rooms in San Antonio."

Notice, please , that this does not address the food issue. Cute, yes? But wait. There's more.

Yahoo Sports, which has been covering the hell out of this issue, also said that "Connecticut women's coach Geno Auriemma told reporters on a video conference Thursday that men's teams are receiving daily PCR COVID-19 testing while women's teams are being administered daily antigen tests.PCR tests are more sensitive and can be more accurate than antigen tests, which tend to be more accurate."

How could Gavitt and the others responsible for this travesty not realize that the disparity would be recognized and protested,? After all, every player, male and female, has a phone with a camera and the ability to post on social media, as Sedona Prince of Oregon did to get the ball rolling. So they should have known and they still let this happen. Gavitt and the others need to be fired and replaced with leaders who are full members of this century.

And it doesn't end there. Dawn Staley wrote an interesting piece in which she reminded us all that in the NCAA, the term "March Madness" is reserved for the men only. There was a fascinating piece on Yahoo Sports about the systemic sexism that is built into the NCAA. It is an eye-opener\, an di highly recommend it.

The NCAA and March Madness embody systemic sexism

It makes economic sense to invest more in the NCAA men's basketball tournament than the women's tournament. But that economic sense is built on sexism.

sports.yahoo.com

 

[LCConnFan]

The big story of the tournament this year has to do with the incredibly different level of facilities provided to the men and women at this year's tournament. To cite just two examples, the men got a weight room with a full array of wrights and equipment. The women got one set of dumbbells and nine yoga mats. The men eat at buffets. The women get lunches in boxes.
It was so bad that Dick's Sporting Goods saw a PR opportunity and said they would send truckloads of equipment for the women.

Two NCAAs turkey named Lynn Holtzman (VP of women's Basketball Operations) Dan Gavitt (VP of Men's Basketball Operations) (wonder if any relation to the fabled Dave, hmmm?) apologized and said they "dropped the ball." Hell, they don't even know what the ball looks like.

Here's what Gavitt said:




Notice, please , that this does not address the food issue. Cute, yes? But wait. There's more.

Yahoo Sports, which has been covering the hell out of this issue, also said that "Connecticut women's coach Geno Auriemma told reporters on a video conference Thursday that men's teams are receiving daily PCR COVID-19 testing while women's teams are being administered daily antigen tests.PCR tests are more sensitive and can be more accurate than antigen tests, which tend to be more accurate."

How could Gavitt and the others responsible for this travesty not realize that the disparity would be recognized and protested,? After all, every player, male and female, has a phone with a camera and the ability to post on social media, as Sedona Prince of Oregon did to get the ball rolling. So they should have known and they still let this happen. Gavitt and the others need to be fired and replaced with leaders who are full members of this century.

And it doesn't end there. Dawn Staley wrote an interesting piece in which she reminded us all that in the NCAA, the term "March Madness" is reserved for the men only. There was a fascinating piece on Yahoo Sports about the systemic sexism that is built into the NCAA. It is an eye-opener\, an di highly recommend it.

The NCAA and March Madness embody systemic sexism

It makes economic sense to invest more in the NCAA men's basketball tournament than the women's tournament. But that economic sense is built on sexism.

sports.yahoo.com

I also want to reiterate, that which I posted yesterday in this thread, that UCONN's Athletic director, Dave Benedict appears not to have said or done anything worthwhile either, other than post 'default' responses. Why do our coaches and players have to be the ones that address issues like this? This is the job of administrators. At the very least Dave should be up in arms about the different testing procedures!

 

[JJTB]

I also want to reiterate, that which I posted yesterday in this thread, that UCONN's Athletic director, Dave Benedict appears not to have said or done anything worthwhile either, other than post 'default' responses. Why do our coaches and players have to be the ones that address issues like this? This is the job of administrators. At the very least Dave should be up in arms about the different testing procedures!

Benedict's probably still in denial he extended Edsall!!! Good grief!!!

 

[UcMiami]

I also want to reiterate, that which I posted yesterday in this thread, that UCONN's Athletic director, Dave Benedict appears not to have said or done anything worthwhile either, other than post 'default' responses. Why do our coaches and players have to be the ones that address issues like this? This is the job of administrators. At the very least Dave should be up in arms about the different testing procedures!

Yeah - the NCAA is a semi autonomous organization created by universities and colleges from D1 down to D3. There are other similar organization NAIA for example but the NCAA dwarfs them. So colleges can hide behind the NCAA, but the bottom line is they, as a collective own this mess, just as much as Gavitt, Holtzman, and Emmert. And that starts with P5 Universities which have out-sized influence and P5 Athletic Directors. I was disappointed that Uconn's AD and President weren't more forceful.

The college and professional athletes of both genders are leading this outrage. I am also disappointed that more men's coaches haven't gone on record and that ADs and University presidents aren't expressing outrage. That this was actually included in the tournament handbook and not one athletic department raised the issue prior to the opening, and it took a student athlete to call attention to it is disheartening.

Just a reminder: this kind of issue is also influenced by every graduate of every school when they make their decision about their alumnae donation checks.