Women in Student Athletics Continue to Expose Gender Disparity in NCAA College Athletics-THE elephant in the room. Portland State Vanguard I interviewed Viking student-athletes to get their thoughts on inequality.
During the 2020-21 season, University of Oregon forward Sedona Prince spoke out about the NCAA’s infamous “weight room incident.” The women’s team had only a small rack of 12 dumbbells at the annual March Madness basketball tournament, but the men’s team didn’t have the same problem.
Basketball player Savannah Dhaliwal wasn’t surprised when Prince reported the situation to the NCAA. “Everyone was talking about it on social media, but for me, I know how women are treated because I’m a college athlete myself, so it wasn’t new,” Dhaliwal said. “The only reason there was so much media coverage about it is because they had a point of comparison because the men were playing in the same tournament at the same time.”
Women’s basketball players Jenna Kilty and Morgan Baird noted that the media had access to the story. “(Prince) has a huge platform, so she was able to reach a lot of people when she posted that video,” Kilty said. “Anyone who saw a side-by-side comparison between the men’s and women’s NCAA tournament and the weight rooms and the food and the gifts they received would have been shocked at how different they were.”
““Prince is using her voice to help improve the current situation within the NCAA and to improve systems for future female athletes,” Baird said. “Portland State’s SAAC recently completed a campaign focused on equity and social justice issues, including equity in NCAA women’s sports. Projects like these raise awareness on important issues that impact many people.”
For the softball team, the tournament lasted less than a week, with several teams having to play two games at once; the Florida State Seminoles played seven games in six days (including one that ended at 2:18 a.m.). The baseball tournament, on the other hand, lasts almost two weeks.
Softball player Olivia Grey said it’s “a slap in the face” to see the difference in treatment between baseball and softball. “Recovery times should be the same regardless of the sport or the time,” Grey said. “For softball pitchers as well, it puts them at an even greater disadvantage because of the lack of rest between games.”
Her softball teammate, Emily Johansen, agrees: “Recovery is just as important as performance itself, and men have the opportunity to recover, so why not women?”
Kilty sympathized with the softball team’s similar circumstances. “You play back-to-back games in AAU or other summer leagues,” Kilty said. “But college athletes work so hard and with the conditioning, the weight room and all the other demands that come with being an athlete, you eventually get tired. I can’t imagine playing more than one game a day.”
Some women’s teams are forced to play in the middle of the night because of schedules and timing, Grey said, although she said revenue from the Women’s College World Series skyrockets each year.
“The NCAA cannot continue to blame funding on the reduction of deadlines,” Grey continued. “The favoritism toward men’s sports over women’s sports is so obvious.”
Johansen is concerned about the accessibility of the games. “The (Women’s College World Series) championship game was at 3 p.m. on a Thursday,” Johansen said. “That’s a really inconvenient time to watch a game, no matter what sport, because if you’re watching the (Men’s College World Series), the final game is at 7 p.m. Now, I’m going to ask you, which game do you think people would choose given the time constraints?”
Many players have spoken out about their struggles with the NCAA. Johansen speaks of a “lack of support” behind the scenes: “Inconvenient game times for fans to show their support, a lack of opportunities to decompress after stressful situations for some athletes juggling the stress of the game, outside judgments on social media, not to mention the demands of school on top of it all.”
According to Baird, the NCAA women’s basketball tournament is not even allowed to use “March Madness” on media publications.—because it’s only “March Madness” for men. Grey spoke of his concern that money and profit are getting in the way of ““Protecting and ensuring that the university experience of athletes is the best possible.”
Players also made suggestions about things the NCAA could do better to support women’s sports, such as greater representation.
“I think the NCAA can do a better job of promoting women’s sports and sharing their stories, just like they do for men.” Dhaliwal said: ““Whether it’s through posters of female athletes in schools or in the media, I think we’re still underrepresented. I think overall, people are becoming more aware of the disparities between men’s and women’s sports, especially at the university level.”
Portland State is helping lead that charge with a women’s basketball head coach in Coach Chelsey Gregg and a women’s athletic director in Valerie Cleary. Baird suggested that wWomen’s sports need equal attention, and the NCAA can improve its systems by hiring more women in leadership positions, such as coaches and athletic directors.
“It’s really inspiring to see women in these leadership positions, who can use their voices to promote change,” Baird said.
“Things need to change, and quickly,” Johansen said, “for the mental and physical well-being of all college athletes who will be competing in the coming years.”
