Metro Conference

MAAC Submits Request to the NCAA to Investigate the Inequitable Treatment of Women’s Basketball

4/6/2021 11:00:00 AM

The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Council of Presidents today authorized the submission of a request by the conference to NCAA President Mark Emmert and NCAA Division I Board of Directors chair Denise Trauth (Texas State University) that the Association support an independent review of its “Inequitable Treatment of Women’s Basketball by the NCAA.”  The MAAC presidents note further that they support the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) request for an independent "Commission on Gender Inequity in College Sports" to be led by individuals chosen by the WBCA and NCAA.  The MAAC also supports the WBCA’s request that the Commission’s charge be to actively examine the disparate treatment of women’s and men’s college athletics.   
   

• Significant disparities in the conditions and treatment of female and male student athletes at the 2021 men’s and women’s basketball championships were abundantly evident. Regrettably, these realities are symptomatic of pervasive practices that exist in the NCAA that significantly disadvantage women’s sports and female student-athletes.

 

• This is a longstanding systemic problem, creating organizational, structural, financial, sales, marketing, branding, and cultural inequities in the way the NCAA athletics programs for female student-athletes are managed, funded and promoted. These disparities are long overdue for reform.

 

• The NCAA has publicly committed to the gender equity principles enshrined in Title IX. These core values are foundational and fundamental principles of the Association’s constitution.

 

• The glaring disparities which occurred at the NCAA basketball championships undermine these gender equity principles that were formulated to ensure that female athletes competing at the highest level of intercollegiate sports are treated equitably.

 

• It should be recognized that the NCAA Women’s Division I basketball is growing in competitiveness, viewership, and attendance. The Association has an immediate opportunity to embrace the game and build women’s sports to a new level of growth, provide critical resources for institutional programs in the MAAC and the other 31 conferences that comprise the NCAA Division I membership, and offer female student-athletes the overdue recognition they deserve for their equal worth in collegiate sports.

 
 
Accordingly, the MAAC Council of Presidents is calling for change and respectfully requests that the NCAA Division I Board of Directors appoint an independent commission to account for the disparate treatment of men’s and women’s collegiate athletics.
 

About the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference:
With 11 institutions strongly bound by the sound principles of quality and integrity in academics and excellence in athletics, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) celebrates its 40^th year of competition during the 2020-21 academic year. Current conference members include: Canisius College, Fairfield University, Iona College, Manhattan College, Marist College, Monmouth University, Niagara University, Quinnipiac University, Rider University, Saint Peter’s University, and Siena College.