March Madness remains the biggest basketball tournament the NCAA puts on each year. Both male and female college athletes compete all season long for their one moment to shine in this nationally-televised event. This year things looked a little different, particularly on the women’s side. 

With COVID-19 still circulating, the NCAA enforced a “bubble.” The men’s and women’s bubbles took place in two completely different locations, where teams were regularly tested and required to wear masks, on top of numerous other restrictions. All teams were to be provided with food, rooming, practice courts and gym space. The men were gifted with a cutting edge workout space, but the women rolled up to a single rack of dumbbells and some yoga mats. Players, coaches and public figures took to social media with their understandable frustration. 

Oregon Ducks player Sedona Prince posted a Tik Tok expressing her thoughts on the matter.

“The NCAA came out with a statement saying that it wasn’t money, it was space that was the problem,” Prince said.

 Prince then panned to a large area of empty space, plenty big for a weight room. 

Some argued that the men generate more revenue than the women; however, according to Title IX, the NCAA must put forth an equal amount of money towards both men’s and women’s basketball. In this case, the NCAA appeared to ignore the rules and put less money into the women’s side of the tournament. 

The weight rooms weren’t the only noticeable difference between the two tournaments. Each athlete was gifted a “swag bag.” 

According to Jack Marshall, a reporter for Montana Kaimin, “The men’s basketball players received a blanket, a sweatshirt, a hat, a t-shirt, 16 different hygiene products, a book, a pair of socks, a puzzle and a few more assorted March Madness-themed items. The women’s basketball players received a pillowcase, two water bottles, a t-shirt, an umbrella, six hygiene products, a pair of socks, a hat, a scrunchie and a set of playing cards.”

The gifts aside, many people took to social media insulting the NCAA for disrespecting these hard-working female athletes and setting a “low standard” for all women in sports.

To top it all off, the male basketball players received catered buffet meals, while the women received plastic containers filled with nearly inedible meat. 

In response to the injustice, NBA and WNBA players voiced their opinions on social media in support of the women’s game. After the side-by-side comparisons of the weight rooms were released, multiple fitness centers also showed their support by sending dumbbells, machines and truck loads of equipment to the women’s NCAA March Madness bubble. 

Orangetheory Fitness released a statement on Twitter saying, “Teams at the Women’s 2021 NCAA Tournament, we see you. We hear you. We want to help. This tournament is a celebration of the best players in the league. No one should be asked to forgo their training at this critical moment.” 

That same day DICK’s Sporting Goods tweeted out, “@NCAA Our teammates have worked quickly to get truckloads of fitness equipment to send to the women’s @ncaawbb @marchmadness bubble – we are standing by to deliver it and have your facility outfitted within hours! Let’s make this happen.”

Fans and supporters of women’s athletics are encouraged to tune into games and contribute to these athletes’ success in any way possible. The treatment of women in the NCAA bubble was not just a fluke, but a continuation of a pattern that has yet to be broken when it comes to women in sports.