The NCAA spends more on average on male athletes than female ones, particularly when it comes to the 鈥渕ere handful of championships鈥� viewed as revenue sources, according to a new report.
The law firm hired by the NCAA to investigate equity issues released Tuesday night, which includes a series of recommendations to improve the gap among all sports tournaments. It's the second report from the firm, following that recommended how to equalize men's and women's basketball tournaments.
The NCAA has implemented some of those, including allowing the women's tournament to use the term 鈥淢arch Madness."
鈥淭he same structural and cultural issues that impact Division I basketball pervade the NCAA and have shaped its treatment of other championships,鈥� the report said. 鈥淭he NCAA membership鈥檚 heavy reliance on the money it receives from NCAA revenue distributions has placed pressure on the NCAA to maximize that revenue and minimize spending so that more funds can be distributed to the membership."
Tuesday's report shows spending per Division I and national championship participants, excluding basketball, was about $1,700 less for women鈥檚 participants than men鈥檚 in 2018-19. The NCAA spent $4,285 per men's participant versus $2,588 per women's participant.
The gap is even greater in the six single-gender sports like wrestling and beach volleyball 鈥� $2,229 more per student-athlete for the men鈥檚 championships than for the women鈥檚.
The review also found that sports with combined their championships have fared better on gender equality.
鈥淲e have seen that combining at least some portion of the men's and women's championship for a given sport enables more coordinated planning, increases equity in the goods and services, facilities, and resources provided at the championships and eliminates or reduces disparities between the 鈥榣ook and feel鈥� of the tournaments," the report said.
Another piece of the report shows NCAA doesn鈥檛 have the infrastructure in place to encourage equal sponsorships at all championships.
鈥淭he report identified important recommendations, which we will prioritize and sequence so they can be implemented for impactful change,鈥� . 鈥淭hese changes may require altering budgets and business models while evaluating the balance between resources devoted to championships that produce revenue and resources for those that do not.鈥�
The review was done by Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP, which was hired in March after the NCAA failed to provide similar amenities to the teams in the men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 Division I basketball tournaments. The situation blew up on social media amid player complaints and prompted apologies from NCAA executives, including President Mark Emmert.
Tuesday's report also recommended:
鈥� Establishing a system for collecting and maintaining standardized data across all 90 championships that will facilitate future gender equity reviews and audits.
鈥� Getting rid of gender modifiers on branding for the tournaments and championships.
鈥� Increasing the number of senior staff in the NCAA鈥檚 championships structure to improve oversight of gender equity.
鈥� Conducting a 鈥渮ero-based鈥� budget for each championship over the next five years to ensure gender differences are necessary, appropriate and equitable.
The report estimated that ESPN is underpaying the NCAA for tournament rights for 29 championships, 鈥渃ausing the association to lose out on substantial and crucial revenue.鈥� For example, the firm estimated that women鈥檚 basketball annual broadcast rights in 2025 would be worth $81 million to $112 million, which is 鈥渕ultiples more鈥� than the network gives NCAA right now for all 29 championships.
鈥淭he structure of broadcast agreements is holding back the growth of sports other than men鈥檚 basketball and the leadership team has been unable to recognize the inequities in treatment of student-athletes and rectify it in a timely manner,鈥� Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference commissioner Rich Ensor said.
August's report highlighted staffing as an issue for championships, with men's basketball having more than women's hoops. Some sports like baseball and hockey also had more staffing than softball and women's hockey, the latest review said, though it showed women's volleyball and soccer championships had bigger staffs than the men.
The report says there 鈥渁ppears to be no formal or consistent definition" of the three categories that the NCAA uses to decide staffing for championships -- 鈥渆quity,鈥� meaning revenue-producing or could be revenue-producing; 鈥済rowth,鈥� which would have the potential to make money over time; and 鈥渟ustained,鈥� or one that loses money.
鈥淭here remains little understanding among the NCAA membership and even among NCAA staff about how staffing support is allocated among championships,鈥� the report said.
The law firm also said couldn鈥檛 do direct comparisons between championships because 鈥渢he NCAA does not maintain its records of expenses, ticket sales, amenities, or other items in a standardized manner that would permit such analysis."
Fan festivals were another topic in which there was gender inequality, the report said. The women鈥檚 soccer fan festival is bigger than the men鈥檚, but is an outlier. Men鈥檚 lacrosse and baseball fan festivals have more sponsors, music and games than women鈥檚, the firm said, and the NCAA spends more on them. The 2019 baseball fan festival cost about $274,800, compared to the softball equivalent at $53,900.
Doug Feinberg And Erica Hunzinger, The Associated Press
