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NCAA President Mark Emmert continued on Wednesday to apologize for the inequalities between the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments that came to light earlier this month, conceding: “we let them down”, but he added that the women’s basketball community must determine what specific improvements they want. to “pick up and run with” as the sport progresses.
A recent point of debate has been branding differences, as the March Madness slogan is not used in conjunction with the Women’s Tournament and the Final Fours are differentiated by the use of “Women” preceding the Final Four logo.
While Emmert said he is committed to “ensuring that we use the NCAA marks as effectively as possible in promoting women’s basketball,” he added that “these are debates for marketing people and those who want to promote the game. “
“There’s no reason these two logos can’t be what the women’s team wants,” said Emmert. “The female staff are part of the NCAA. They are part of my national office. We all work and live in the same building. This is not someone against the NCAA. This is part of the NCAA. The March logo Madness can – – if the women’s committee and the women’s community want it to be used – there’s no reason they can’t use it.
Likewise, ‘Final Four’ is used by both, and it is up to the committee to decide whether or not to use the logo with a gender identifier, and they can certainly do whatever they want with these. things. So, yes, I’m fully committed to doing that. “
Emmert spoke to the media for about 30 minutes on Wednesday before the Women’s Final Four in San Antonio. As he spoke on various topics, the focus continued to be on gender equity issues, which came to the fore again after images surfaced on social media showing the differences. marked between men’s and women’s weight rooms, their meals and called “loot bags”.
Most of those issues have been resolved, but the general topics – which have been simmering in women’s football for decades – prompted the NCAA to hire a New York-based law firm to conduct an external fairness review between women. genders for all NCAA sponsored championships.
“When you put the men’s and women’s championships side by side, as has been made clear over the past few weeks, it stands to reason that we have dropped the ball by supporting our female athletes, and we cannot do that.” , Emmert told me. “It’s a failure that shouldn’t exist.”
Emmert said the NCAA needs to use what happened in San Antonio “as a pivot point, an inflection point to say, what do we need to do better? How to make up for these shortcomings from this day forward and create the kind of gender equity we all talk about … to make sure it’s a reality, not just a language? “
The NCAA needs to make sure its 90 championships – 45 of which are women’s events – are “the pinnacle, the example of how we treat men and women in these championships,” Emmert said.
“That’s not what we did here,” he said. “We’re – I’m – sorry for that. It’s something we never should have allowed. I understand that. Everyone else too now.”
Asked why it took so long to address many of the same issues that were raised in a 2013 report prepared for the NCAA by current Big East commissioner Val Ackerman, Emmert pointed to another study from the NCAA performed about two years ago, but ultimately said: excuse. “
“These have been and continue to be hotly debated,” Emmert said. “I think they have led to some positive changes around women’s basketball, but it’s clear that too little has been done and not enough has been run on them. The women’s basketball community needs to. first and foremost determine which parts of those recommendations, like in Val’s or someone else’s white paper, they want to pick up and run with.
“There is no other excuse that we have to do better and we have to get the commitment of our entire governance structure to do it. That’s what we’re doing now. That’s why we are doing it. let’s do our review, and that’s why I want to work with the coaching association and others to resolve these issues. “
The Women’s Basketball Coaches Association sent a letter to Emmert on Tuesday saying the NCAA external review was “insufficient to meet the needs of WBCA member coaches.”
“When you put the men’s and women’s championships side by side, as has been made clear over the past few weeks, it stands to reason that we have dropped the ball by supporting our female athletes, and we cannot do it. failure that shouldn’t exist. ”
NCAA President Mark Emmert
In the letter, which was obtained by ESPN, the WBCA instead called for an “independent commission on gender inequality in college sports” to be chaired by people chosen by the WBCA and NCAA. Emmert met with the members of the WBCA on Wednesday morning.
“WBCA is a vital partner,” said Emmert. “They are experts in women’s basketball. They have more knowledge and understanding of the game and what has been going on for a long time than anyone. They must be an essential part to understand all of this.
“I look forward to hearing from them and hearing their thoughts and perspectives. I understand their interest in being a part of it, and together we can find a structure that I think we can all feel very comfortable with. . “
When asked if there was anything he wished he would have done differently in his response to tournament differences, Emmert replied, “There always is.
“These things just shouldn’t happen. We could and should have avoided them, and we didn’t. It’s a failure on my part. It’s a failure on everyone’s part. We were really focused on making sure we could get through this during the pandemic, and we weren’t as focused on the kind of fairness we needed.
“To have this incredible event marred by these impacts is just heartbreaking. Anything we could have done to avoid that I would have happily done it and obviously wish I had done it. These athletes deserve it. They deserve it. deserved, they deserve it, them, and it shouldn’t have happened. “
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