NCAA Tournament

NCAA apologizes for glaring disparity between men’s and women’s weight rooms at tournaments

The organization admitted it dropped the ball.

The NCAA apologized for its actions. Ronald Martinez/Getty Images North America

By Trevor Hass

2 minutes to read

The NCAA apologized for “dropping the ball” after giving women’s basketball players far inferior training facilities to the men at the Division 1 tournaments.

“We fell short this year in what we’ve been doing to prepare in the last 60 days for 64 for teams to be here in San Antonio, and we acknowledge that,” said Lynn Holzman, the NCAA’s vice president of women’s basketball.

A video, followed by several photos, showed the glaring disparity. Sedona Prince of the University of Oregon shared how the women’s weight room featured a single set of dumbbells like one might find at a hotel or a store.

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The men’s room, meanwhile, was full of equipment and plenty of resources – enough where the inequity stood out right away.

“If you’re not upset about this problem, then you are a part of it,” Prince said.

In an initial statement, Holzman said the contrast was due to limited space in the tournament bubble in San Antonio. Dan Gavitt, senior vice president of basketball for the NCAA, took ownership of the issue and helped facilitate the arrival of new and improved equipment Saturday.

“I apologize to women’s basketball student-athletes, to the coaches, Women’s Basketball Committee for dropping the ball, frankly, on the weight room issue in San Antonio,” Gavitt said.

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