Oregon players help expose endless gender gap at NCAA women's tournament

Tom Gatto

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Oregon players help expose endless gender gap at NCAA women's tournament image

The differences between the men's and women's NCAA basketball tournaments became a study in grossly unequal treatment Thursday. As part of the visual evidence: meals for the women that looked . . . just gross.

And although March Madness produces millions and millions more dollars in revenue than the women's tourney, the NCAA claimed the disparity wasn't about money but rather a lack of space in the women's bubble in San Antonio.

The money explanation seems plausible after seeing how the bubble was presented on social media. Tournament organizers could have just passed the hat and things would have gotten a lot better in a hurry. The "lack of space" excuse, on the other hand, was exposed as being weak.

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For visual evidence of that, here's Oregon player Sedona Prince giving a tour of a central location in the women's bubble. Note the baffling difference in weight training resources.

Back to the food. Yeah, the food. Not a good look for the NCAA.

DoorDash reportedly is forbidden in the San Antonio bubble.

And then there was the difference in swag:

Again, one tournament drives the revenue train for a lot of intercollegiate programs, men's and women's, while the other doesn't. And, to be honest, the NCAA doesn't need to give any athletes free stuff. But as critics pointed out, this looks as if the NCAA just didn't care that the disparity was so wide.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.