Congresswomen introduce bill to push for NCAA gender equity reform

Three U.S. lawmakers hope to create a Congressional commission to investigate and help correct gender inequities in college sports.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D., N.Y.), the chairwoman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, and two colleagues on Thursday introduced a bill that would establish the commission "to comprehensively study gender equity in [the] NCAA’s operation of tournaments and other programs."

Maloney, Jackie Speier (D., Calif.) and Mikie Sherrill (D., N.J.) have intermittently pushed the NCAA to address persistent structural inequities between its treatment of men's and women's sports ever since those inequities were exposed during March Madness in 2021.

“Despite last year’s scandal, the NCAA has made pathetic progress towards correcting the deeply misogynistic attitudes and treatment of the women’s teams compared to the men’s teams," Speier said in a Thursday news release. "And this continues even after the NCAA was put on notice for its unjust treatment of women in at least four prior reviews over the last 30 years. Clearly we need an independent commission and greater oversight over the NCAA to crack the caveman mentality that doesn’t just insult our stellar women athletes, but violates Title IX.”

The proposed bipartisan commission would comprise 16 members appointed by House and Senate leadership, and would deliver a final report "12-18 months after establishment."

The report, the bill stipulates, would include:

1. "A comparison of NCAA treatment of men’s and women’s teams in postseason tournaments and other student-athlete programs including venues and equipment provided for games and practices; lodging and transportation; media contracts; licensees, sponsors, and other fulfillment partners who deliver essential elements of the tournaments; and overall budgets;

2. "An analysis of [the] NCAA’s constitution and policies that affect gender equity between men’s and women’s college sports teams; and

3. "An overview of federal government support for NCAA and recommendations for improved federal oversight of [the] NCAA’s promotion of gender equity."

The NCAA, in response to blatant disparities between its men's and women's basketball tournaments last year, commissioned a third-party investigation that ultimately exposed its underinvestment in women's hoops. In a scathing 118-page report, the law firm Kaplan Hecker & Fink detailed how the NCAA’s “structure and systems … prioritize Division I men’s basketball over everything else in ways that create, normalize, and perpetuate gender inequities.”

The report included dozens of recommendations for how the NCAA could rectify those inequities. In their letter earlier this month, the Congresswomen acknowledged that the "NCAA has taken some short-term steps to avoid repeating the public relations catastrophe" of last March. But they wrote that the NCAA has "failed to take meaningful steps to correct deficiencies identified" by the Kaplan report and by the Congresswomen last summer.

Almost immediately after the report was presented in early August, the NCAA established a “gender equity steering committee” to lead an internal review. The Kaplan report revealed a $35.2 million gulf between men's and women's tournament budgets. Beginning in November, NCAA staff essentially stripped those budgets down to zero and rebuilt them from scratch.

Dan Gavitt, the NCAA’s senior vice president of basketball, said that multiple departments compiled 2,800 budget line items and identified 65 “gap areas” between the two tournaments. In recent months, staffers worked to correct those discrepancies. According to an NCAA spokeswoman, “more than 50” gaps have since been closed “with new funding. At least a dozen others were addressed with non-monetary changes.”

Two sources briefed on the changes told Yahoo Sports that the women's tournament budget had increased by $5 million. Among the changes, various NCAA officials said, were increased signage, more player lounges and Final Four festivities open to the public on the Saturday between the semifinals and final. There have been enhanced team intros and in-arena video boards and news conference transcripts after every game. Awards and gifts have been on par with the men’s. Inequality in referee pay was rectified.

The NCAA also adhered to some specific Kaplan recommendations: It expanded the women's tournament to 68 teams, and allowed the women to use "March Madness" branding after withholding the signature mark for years.

Progress in other areas, though, has lagged. The congresswomen, in their earlier letter, noted that the "NCAA appears to have made no progress toward changing the leadership structure of Division I basketball to ensure that women’s basketball leadership has the same level of seniority as men’s basketball leadership." An NCAA spokeswoman confirmed to Yahoo Sports earlier this month that Lynn Holzman, the vice president of women's basketball, still reports to Gavitt, who oversees men's hoops and reports directly to Emmert.

The congresswomen also wrote that the NCAA "has been notably slow to commit to or implement recommendations that will ensure structural, long-term changes to advance gender equity."

Decisions on some potential changes — such as a revamped revenue distribution scheme that would reward women's basketball success, not just men's success — rest not with the NCAA's central staff, but with committees that comprise administrators at various Division I schools and conferences. The current scheme incentivizes investment in men's sports over women's sports. A recent USA Today investigation and analysis detailed how many schools spend significantly more on their men's teams than their women's teams.

In announcing their bill on Thursday, the Congresswomen again criticized the NCAA.

“For far too long, NCAA collegiate programs have sidelined gender equity for the sake of profit,” Maloney said. “NCAA basketball fans across the country witnessed firsthand the starkly unequal treatment between women’s and men’s athletic programs during last year’s NCAA tournament, and the Committee’s investigation has shown that NCAA leadership have not taken adequate steps to fix the problem. Every student-athlete deserves to be treated fairly, and today we’re taking an important step to holding the NCAA accountable to that standard.”