NCAA report details gender gap in funding
The NCAA spends more on average on male athletes than female ones, particularly when it comes to the “mere handful of championships” viewed as revenue sources, according to a new report.
The law firm hired by the NCAA to investigate equity issues released its 153-page report Tuesday, which includes a series of recommendations to improve the gap among all sports. It’s the second report from the New York-based firm, following its Aug. 3 one that recommended how to equalize men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.
The NCAA has implemented some of those, including allowing the women’s tournament to use the term “March Madness.”
“The same structural and cultural issues that impact Division I basketball pervade the NCAA and have shaped its treatment of other championships,” the report said. “The NCAA membership’s heavy reliance on the money it receives from NCAA revenue distributions has placed pressure on the NCAA to maximize that revenue and minimize spending so that more funds can be distributed to the membership.”
Tuesday’s report shows spending per Division I and national championship participants, excluding basketball, was about $1,700 less for women’s participants than men’s in 2018-19. The NCAA spent $4,285 per men’s participant versus $2,588 per women’s participant.
The gap is even greater in the six single-gender sports like wrestling and beach volleyball — $2,229 more per student-athlete for the men’s championships than for the women’s.
The review also found that sports with combined championships have fared better on gender equality.
“We have seen that combining at least some portion of the men’s and women’s championship for a given sport enables more coordinated planning, increases equity in the goods and services, facilities, and resources provided at the championships and eliminates or reduces disparities between the ‘look and feel’ of the tournaments,” the report said.
Another piece of the report shows NCAA doesn’t have the infrastructure in place to encourage equal sponsorships at all championships.
“The report identified important recommendations, which we will prioritize and sequence so they can be implemented for impactful change,” the NCAA Board of Governors said in a statement on the institution’s website. “These changes may require altering budgets and business models while evaluating the balance between resources devoted to championships that produce revenue and resources for those that do not.”
The review was done by Kaplan Hecker & Fink
LLP, which was hired after the NCAA failed to provide similar amenities to the teams in the men’s and women’s Division I basketball tournaments. The situation blew up on social media and prompted apologies from NCAA executives, including president Mark Emmert.
Renowned Scottish coach Smith dies at 73
Walter Smith, the Scottish soccer coach who won 10 league titles with Rangers and also led the national team, has died. He was 73.
Rangers announced the death on Tuesday, with chairman Douglas Park saying the “club legend” had been battling illness.
“It is almost impossible to encapsulate what Walter meant to every one of us at Rangers,” Park said. “He embodied everything that a Ranger should be. His character and leadership was second to none.”
Smith had two spells as Rangers manager, the first from 1991-98 when he won seven straight Scottish league titles as well as three Scottish Cups and three Scottish League Cups.
He returned in 2007 and won three straight league titles from 2009, five domestic cups, and guided Rangers to the UEFA Cup final in 2008.
In between his stints at Ibrox, Smith managed Premier League club Everton from 1998-2002, had a short period as assistant to Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, and took charge of the Scottish national team from 2004-07.
• The German soccer league (DFL) says more than 90% of players, coaches and staff from the 36 clubs in the Bundesliga and second division have received vaccines against the coronavirus.
The DFL said Tuesday that the figure is based on voluntary information provided by the clubs and that it does not have specific information on individuals, whether they have received one or two doses or which manufacturer’s vaccine they received.
The owners of Kansas City’s professional women’s soccer team announced they plan to build a $70 million stadium for the team.
The stadium for Kansas City NWSL will be the first built in the U.S. specifically for a women’s soccer team.
Kansas City NWSL owners Angie Long, Chris Long and Brittany Matthews announced the 11,000-seat stadium will be built along the Missouri River close to downtown Kansas City. It will be privately financed.
Construction is expected to start next spring or summer, with the stadium ready for use by 2024, The Kansas City Star reported.
Raducanu rallies to win the Transylvania
Emma Raducanu rallied to beat Polona Hercog of Slovenia 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 at the Transylvania Open on Tuesday for her first win since her stunning run to the U.S. Open title more than six weeks ago.
It was also the teenager’s first victory on the WTA Tour.
“Super happy to get my first ever WTA win today,” the 18-year-old Raducanu wrote on Twitter.
Raducanu, whose father is Romanian, became the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam tournament. Less than two weeks later, she split from her coach, Andrew Richardson. She had only played in Indian Wells since, falling in the opening round.
The 23rd-ranked Raducanu, of Britain, lost five straight games from 4-1 up in the opening set against Hercog but eased to victory after breaking her 124thranked opponent at 6-5 in the second.
Stefanos Tsitsipas saved three set points before beating Grigor Dimitrov 7-6 (6), 6-4 to join Olympic champion Alexander Zverev in the second round of the Erste Bank Open.
Zverev also advanced in straight sets but had to rally from 5-2 down in the second to overcome Filip Krajinovic 6-2, 7-5.
The top-seeded Tsitsipas, who lost to Dimitrov in the second round last year, was 6-3 down in the tiebreaker before reeling off five straight points to claim the opening set.
Tsitsipas converted his first match point with Dimitrov serving at 5-4 when the 22nd-ranked-Bulgarian hit a forehand wide.
The third-ranked Greek, who is striving for his third title of the season, next plays Frances Tiafoe, who defeated Dusan Lajovic 6-4, 6-4.
• Prime Minister Scott Morrison has indicated that unvaccinated tennis players will be allowed to enter the country for the Australian Open provided they undergo two weeks in hotel quarantine.
Morrison moved to clarify the border situation a week after his immigration minister suggested there’d be a no jab, no visa policy for the tournament next January.
Morrison told Australian television networks there are exemptions to the strict COVID-19 pandemic international border protection rules for those who qualify under skilled worker or economic benefit criteria.
“If there is a special exemption that is warranted for an economic reason, well, that can happen,” he said. “But you’ve got to follow the health rules in that state — and two weeks quarantine for unvaccinated people, well, that’s sensible,” Morrison told Australia’s Nine network.
He said the ultimate decision was for the state of Victoria, which hosts the Australian Open at Melbourne Park. Victoria has a mandatory vaccination policy in place for athletes competing in domestic leagues.