NCAA bashed over tournament

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A screenshot Sedona Prince’s video showing off the new weight room facilities after inequalities of the NCAA tournament came to light

Savannah Snyder, Journalism Student

2021s NCAA basketball tournament was unusual.

Many athletes were surprised by the number of Covid-19 protocols they needed to follow at the NCAA basketball tournament, including having to quarantine for 14 days before starting to play and constantly being tested for Covid-19. They also had to wear contact tracers for their safety. There were limited or no fans depending where games were played and Covid-19 protocols.

Inequalities between the men’s bubble and the women’s bubble began to surface, showing off a major difference. There were videos that showed how the men and women were given unequal things, such as weight room. Now the tournament and the NCAA are getting the what some feel is the wrong kind of publicity.

An Oregon Ducks player Sedona Prince was one of many women’s basketball players that shared a video or tweets. One video shows the men’s weight room compared to the women’s. The women had one rack of dumbbells and yoga mats whereas the men had several racks for lifting and squatting and benches with tons of weights.

As Sedona Prince shared videos on Twitter of her saying, “Let me put it on Twitter too because this needs the attention.” Attached was the video with pictures with what the women’s workout space looked like compared to the men.

Originally, the NCAA had cited “limited space.” Yet that was still proven to not be true as another video came out showing all of the space next to women’s practice court. Oregon Ducks star Sedona Prince, among others showed the “limited space” excuse was not true.

Many people had reactions to the situation, including Steph Curry who tweeted “wow-come on now! @marchmadness @NCAA yall trippin trippin.” Athletes were outraged after the year this nation has had with fighting for justice and equality to be set back was a major blow for women and their growth in sports equality.