The mens tournament, the report said, faced no such scrutiny.
Once the men arrived in Indiana and the women in Texas for their tournaments, investigators said, they had vastly different experiences. Food quality varied drastically, as did lounges for players and gift bags provided to participants. (The N.C.A.A. spent $125.55 per player in the first and second rounds of the mens tournament on gifts; the association spent $60.42 per player in the early rounds at the womens tournament.)
And investigators found that tournament organizers devoted far more resources to promoting the mens tournament.
But the problems that trailed the womens tournament were, in many respects, years in the making, Kaplans team found. The N.C.A.A., for instance, earns money from a corporate sponsorship arrangement that produces substantial revenue exclusively for mens basketball in Division I. The system, the investigators wrote, requires a prospective sponsor to agree to support all N.C.A.A. championship events, closing off opportunities to companies with smaller marketing budgets.
There is no space for sponsors who might be interested in sponsoring womens basketball but who do not want or cannot afford to buy the required advertising time to support mens basketball, the report said. The media rights structure, they added, contributes to the narrative that womens basketball is a supposed money loser and that mens basketball needs to be prioritized so that it can maximize revenue for the benefit of all N.C.A.A. sports.
The existing television agreement for the womens tournament, the report also found, has been a substantial hindrance for womens basketball. In an 88-page addendum to the report, a sports media firm estimated that the womens tournament alone could be worth more than $100 million a year beginning in 2025, when the current deal expires.
In the meantime, the firm said, the N.C.A.A. and media partners like CBS, Turner and ESPN could take a series of steps that would protect the premium value of the mens tournament while aiding the continued development of the womens competition. Those options, the report said, include using the March Madness brand for both tournaments.read more
Report: N.C.A.A. Prioritized Men’s Basketball ‘Over Everything’
