Watch: Iowa women’s basketball head coach Lisa Bluder comments on NCAA men’s, women’s tournament disparities

The 21-year Iowa head coach said the NCAA still has work to do regarding equity in the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.

Grace Smith

Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder answers a question during the 2022 NCAA Second Round women’s basketball pre-game press conferences for No. 2 Iowa and No. 10 Creighton at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Saturday, March 19, 2022. Bluder said she is, in some ways, grateful for COVID-19 because it helped amplify inequity between men’s and women’s basketball. “What [COVID-19] did is put us all together and put one kid with a social media out there to get this ball rolling in the right direction.” Bluder said there is still much to accomplish for women’s sports.

Chloe Peterson, Assistant Sports Editor
March 19, 2022

Iowa women’s basketball head coach Lisa Bluder said there is still work to be done on the disparities between the men’s and women’s NCAA Basketball Tournaments in her press conference on Friday.

In the 2021 NCAA Tournament, multiple women’s basketball players spoke out on social media about the disparities in food, weight rooms, and gifts the institution provided in its men’s and women’s tournaments.

Because of COVID-19 concerns, the 2021 NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments were centered in Indianapolis and San Antonio, respectively. The men’s tournament in Indianapolis had a weight room filled with squat and lifting racks and cardio machines, while the women’s weight room solely had yoga mats and dumbbells up to 30 pounds. The NCAA upgraded its women’s tournament weight room after players spoke out.

 

For the 2021-22 season, the NCAA also made changes to how it marketed its national women’s basketball tournament. On Sept. 29, 2021, the NCAA announced that it would use March Madness branding to market the women’s tournament beginning in 2022. Previously, only the men’s tournament used the March Madness branding.

The NCAA also moved its women’s basketball selection show to Sunday instead of Monday — on par with the men’s tournament. Finally, the NCAA’s external review recommended that it expand the women’s tournament to a 68-team field with a ‘First Four’ to be equal to the men’s tournament. The NCAA officially announced the change on Nov. 17.

“I think we can all see some of the things that they’ve made adjustments on,” Bluder said Saturday. “We all notice March Madness being logoed all over the place. But, man, that’s a small victory, isn’t it? There are definitely some things I know that the NCAA is doing, but we’re not even close to being where we should be. And shame on us for getting down this path this far with nobody ringing the alarms.

“… I mean, when you look about lost television revenue and unit distribution, how women are getting none of that, we’ve proved that we can handle it; that we can sell our product. But they’re just not allowing us to sell our product. I think it’s getting better and I think it will continue to get better and we can’t be satisfied with where it is right now.”

See Bluder’s full comments here: