NCAA blunders could finally lead to changes

Fortner: Women’s game long viewed as ‘afterthought’

SAN ANTONIO — On the fourth floor of the Alamodome, down a clublevel hallway most visitors to the building never see, a plaque honoring Nell Fortner hangs on the wall.

The large bronze plate features an image of Fortner’s face over an engraved summary of her considerable accomplishments, which earned her induction to the San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame. The information on her plaque, like many of the others in that hallway, is indisputable, but not exactly common knowledge.

As it turns out, some facts get noticed only when someone gives the public a reason to look.

And that is why Fortner, the former New Braunfels and University of Texas star and current Georgia Tech coach, thanked the NCAA on Tuesday. She thanked the NCAA because it finally gave people no choice but to acknowledge what’s always been true but too often has been overlooked.

“Thank you,” Fortner wrote in a message posted from her Twitter account, “for using the best three weeks of your organization’s year to expose exactly how you feel about women’s basketball — an afterthought.”

Sarcastic? Absolutely. But see, Fortner understands how this works, and she’s been around long enough to realize that those in charge of college sports never make any changes unless they’re responding to overwhelming public sentiment or legal pressure. And the best way for people to see how ridiculous the NCAA can be is for the NCAA to show people itself.

That’s what has happened over the past week, not only with all of the details surrounding the disparities between the men’s and women’s tournaments, but also with the #NotNCAAProperty player protest movement.

With every response, the NCAA hits the wrong note. Every piece of messaging, from official statements to TV commercials, is contradictory. And as understandably frustrating as this might be to those women fighting for equal treatment, or for those athletes pushing to be able to capitalize on their own names, images and likenesses (NIL), the truth is the NCAA is doing them all a favor by botching this so badly.

At some point, the whole enterprise becomes impossible to defend, doesn’t it?

The two biggest stories of March Madness so far might seem at first glance to be unrelated, but in fact perfectly combine to illustrate why the NCAA — which is for all intents and purposes the colleges and athletic departments themselves — is, for lack of a better term, full of it.

As you might have seen, if you’ve watched coverage of the men’s tournament from Indianapolis, a contingent of players are using this occasion to call for the end of NIL restrictions that no other students — and no other workers — face. They’re not even asking for a salary. All they want is to be able to accept whatever compensation someone is willing to give them on the free market, just like any music major or business student can.

But the NCAA has fought that concept for years and continues to drag its feet while dozens of states advance NIL legislation, and while a case involving athlete compensation heads to the U.S. Supreme Court. One of its many dubious arguments against NIL rights has been that it would be bad to end up in a situation in which certain athletes received more benefits than others.

Even if this is how it works in every workplace in America, we can’t have the star quarterback earning more than the thirdstring punter can we?

The thing is, the NCAA can’t even make that badfaith argument and stick with it. If it truly believed all student-athletes should be treated equally, and that individual’s earning potential was irrelevant, then the weight rooms and the swag bags and the COVID-19 testing procedures at the men’s and women’s tournament bubbles would be exactly the same, right?

They’re not, of course. And as Fortner noted, with her tongue firmly in cheek, the NCAA is doing its critics a great service here.

When an official tried to explain away the difference in souvenir merchandise given to the men and women by citing the differences in weather between Indianapolis and San Antonio?

It was so laughable, people had to notice.

When the Wall Street Journal asked why the term “March Madness” was used on men’s courts but not the women’s, the NCAA told the newspaper the women’s tournament organizers chose not to use it. And later, when the paper learned women’s organizers actually asked to use the phrase but were rejected?

It was so laughable, people had to notice.

And when the NCAA keeps running TV ads about how most of its players go professional in something other than sports, does it realize that only reinforces the idea that athletes should be able to capitalize on their popularity while they have the chance?

It’s so laughable, people have to notice.

So if all of this NCAA bumbling helps bring uncomfortable truths out of a back hallway and on to the Jumbotron? If these public-relations mistakes speed changes that should have come years ago?

Fortner, sarcastic or not, will have been right to express her gratitude.