SPARTAN STRONG

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Early education freshman Hayden Braun said she sees the NCAA is corrupt in the ways that they “scam” women, saying that the NCAA cares more about the men’s tournament because men “get more viewership”.

“It’s been a problem for a while, but I don’t think it’s a problem that has been highlighted until recently,” Braun said. “In the world of NCAA, they’re going to get the money any way they can.”

The report concluded that “the NCAA’s organizational structure and culture prioritizes men’s basketball, contributing to gender inequity.” But other ethical questions have been raised about how inequity is created for female athletes.

The NCAA has a revenue distribution for men, called the “Basketball Fund,” according to the Kaplan Report. The fund, in simple terms, gives colleges and universities more revenue if they go farther in the tournament. However, there is no similar fund for women.

The men’s tournament is broadcasted through CBS Broadcasting and Turner Broadcasting, whereas ESPN broadcasts the women’s tournament.

CBS and Turner supports all 90 games. CBS and Turner control the sponsorship rights for all NCAA championships but incentivize men’s basketball. CBS and Turner deprive women of sponsorships, which leads to less revenue.

CBS and Turner operate the March Madness Live app, which only includes updates about men’s games. The way that the NCAA has allowed this bias is “completely unfair,” Guerrero said.

Guerrero said that when women are treated equally to men in sports, it makes women feel more “empowered and valued in sports.” She also said that people, especially college students, have to “start shifting our attention” to female athletes more.

Kuo said giving more attention to the women’s teams is necessary, since the women’s teams, in basketball and in other sports, are just as good, or even better, than the men’s team of the same sport, but do not get the recognition that they deserve.

“We’re not taking for granted how great the women’s basketball players are just for how good they are themselves, instead of just comparing them to the men or comparing them to the best of the best,” Kuo said.

Kuo also believes the NCAA does an organization,” Kuo said. “You would never hear the phrase ‘We need to support men’s basketball or support men’s football,’ but we do hear the phrase ‘we need to support the WNBA or women’s college basketball,’ which is totally the incorrect mindset and way of looking at it.”

An article by Sports Illustrated reveals that the NCAA potentially left tens of millions of dollars on the table by neglecting to recognize the earning power of the women’s tournament. The Kaplan Report also said that ESPN, which broadcasts the women’s games, does not allow for much free time during women’s games, such as pregame and postgame features and interviews.

Kuo and Guerrero agree that a simple way for MSU students to help gain support for the women’s team is to show up to the game, which is free for students. Kuo said this support would cause a drastic change.

Braun has a few solutions that he thinks may solve the problem of the favoritism between the men’s and women’s basketball teams: lowering ticket prices, playing more games on TV and not overlapping the March Madness games so that it is easier to watch both tournaments. He thinks that if the NCAA does

Last year, the Women’s March Madness Final Four was the mostwatched Final Four weekend since