Viral Videos Show Differences In Men’s And Women’s NCAA Tournament Facilities

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Members of multiple NCAA Women’s basketball teams have posted videos from the tournament highlighting the differences in facilities, food and even swag between themselves and the men’s teams.

Sydney Parrish, who plays for Oregon, posted a video to Tik Tok that has since gone viral showing a comparison of the weight facilities, swag bags and even food. She captioned her video, “NCAA WBB players deserve better.”

@sydney_parrishhNCAA WBB players deserve better🤷🏼‍♀️ ##fyp ##marchmadness ##ncaa ##wbb♬ original sound – Syd

Another player from Oregon, Sedona Prince, posted a video of the weight facilities provided to players. The NCAA later put out a statement saying the discrepancy was due to space. Prince disputes that in her video showing the practice court which appears to have empty space.

“If you aren’t upset about this problem, then you are apart of it,” she concluded her video.

Oregon's Sedona Prince shared a video comparing the women’s and men's weight rooms at their respective NCAA tournament bubbles.

(via @sedonaprince_) pic.twitter.com/7CI9pNopKr

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 19, 2021

Beyond The Weight Facilities

Based on photos posted on social media, the swag bag players get for making it to the NCAA Tournament are not equitable.

… nah they tweaking on the swag bag too?!?! https://t.co/tdxx5lOQuc

— A'ja Wilson (@_ajawilson22) March 18, 2021

It’s hard not to notice the inequities when the tournaments are being put on by the same organization, in the same city at the same time.

As of Friday morning, it takes scrolling past about 25 content pieces about the Men’s tournament to find one content item about the Women’s tournament on the NCAA’s website.

 

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A post shared by Ali Kershner, MS, CSCS (@kershner.ali)

Some of Utah’s local players, like Paisley Harding of BYU, have also posted about the weight room and other differences. Harding posted hers to Tik Tok.

@paisleynikelle13Reply to @alex_gallaher4 Update: the NCAA is going to do something!! ##marchmadness ##ncaa♬ original sound – Paisley

@paisleynikelle13Apparently women only need dumb bells and yoga mats ##marchmadness ##wbb ##equality♬ original sound – Paisley

NCAA Official Statement

After the videos took off on multiple social media platforms with players, fans and even members of the WNBA demanding answers, Lynn Holzman the NCAA’s VP of women’s basketball put out a statement addressing the issues.

“We acknowledge that some of the amenities teams would typically have access to have not been as available inside the controlled environment. In part, this is due to the limited space and the original plan was to expand the workout area once additional space was available later in the tournament,” the statement reads.

The statement continued saying that the NCAA is “actively working” to enhance the facilities. You can read the complete statement below.

Statement from Lynn Holzman, NCAA VP of women’s basketball.#ncaaW pic.twitter.com/gYsesS9Hky

— NCAA Women’s Basketball (@ncaawbb) March 18, 2021