Social Media comes to the rescue for Women's Collegiate Basketball

 In march of 2021, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) went under fire for the treatment of the women's vs men's basketball teams while in the bubble during the March Madness tournament. There were many clear differences between the workout equipment, food, and gift bags. Sedona  Prince, who plays for Oregon, posted a series of tiktoks trying out various meals they were given throughout the time in the tournament. The food was said to be cold, dry, or just flat out inedible. Players would have to nourish themselves off snacks they brought on their own since they were not allowed to deliver food due to covid.

 

The NCAA also gifted the players swag bags as souvenirs of the tournament. The men's bags consisted of  various things such as a blanket, a towel, shirts, pens, stickers, notebooks, socks, hats, shoes, bottles of shampoo, lotion, and much more. The women's swag bag consisted of a shirt, hat, socks, a sweat rag, and one bottle of each toiletry. 

  In one video posted on twitter, the women's workout area was comprised of one rack of dumbbells weights that only contained 6 pairs of weights.  The only other thing available was yoga mats. The men's workout area on the other hand was fully loaded with multiple squat racks, benches, weight sets and basically anything needed to stay in shape. There are 68 men's team competing in march madness and 64 women's teams.

 

Various players posted pictures and videos on social media as well as coaches. This went completely viral. It was all over twitter, instagram, and facebook. Multiple news channels and articles went on to speak about it. Many professional athletes such as Steph Curry, Sue Bird, and Megan Rapinoe speaking out about the situation. The NCAA sent out a statement saying it was the lack of space that didn't allow for the women to have proper gym equipment. NCAA players responded by posting pictures/videos showing wide empty areas of space available. This caused more outrage with the public. Sedona Prince had an interview with CNN and spoke about her experience in the tournament. This lead to the NCAA finally putting up proper training equipment for the women's basketball teams.

Here are links to more information on this topic along with the news interview and videos/posts:

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/19/sport/ncaa-amenities-basketball-spt-trnd/index.html

https://www.kcentv.com/article/sports/ncaa/social-media-disparities-ncaa-men-and-women-tournament/500-c7fc9832-0ea4-4eb9-8d60-0504de632496