Sexism still center court in the NCAA

Like their male counterparts, female athletes thrive on competition.

From the moment they step onto a field or court, they know enormous challenges lie ahead, usually in the form of opponents. They never figured a major opponent would be the very organization entrusted to protect and nurture them.

They figured wrong.

This year, March Madness has been crazy for the wrong reason: The NCAA has been rocked by a scandal born of sexism.

It started last week, when University of Oregon forward Sedona Prince posted a Tiktok video showing the stark disparity between the weight rooms for male and female basketball players.

“Here is our weight room,” Prince says in the video, showing a sparse setup in the Convention Center. A lonely stack of dumbbells. A few yoga mats. That was it.

“Let me show you the men’s weight room,” she then says.

We see a modern, sprawling gym, filled with equipment, including weights and weight machines.

The video, which received millions of hits, was so dramatic that further words were unnecessary. Point made — the rhetorical equivalent of a slam dunk.

The inequities in the facilities were just the start. As the backlash emerged, more disparities were exposed, including differences in the food served the men and women. The men received buffet dinners with steak and lobster, the women box meals, including hot dogs for breakfast, according to some social media posts.

Then Geno Auriemma, the legendary coach for the women’s team at the University of Connecticut, revealed another disparity. He said the men received daily PCR coronavirus tests, while the women were receiving antigen tests, which are less accurate. The NCAA later confirmed the two testing methods.