Opinion: Treat NCAA women same as men or change ‘March Madness’ to ‘Spring Sexism’

March Madness, also known as Spring Sexism, is once again upon us. You can tell it’s here because millions of people who believe women can do anything suddenly start forgetting that women even play sports.

They fill out their bracket, singular, meaning the men’s, and if you ask if they’re filling out a women’s bracket, they look at you as if you asked them to take a cross-country flight sitting next to a guy without a mask who won’t stop coughing. Frankly, they might rather do that.

These people say the word “tournament,” singular, when there obviously are two tournaments, not one. CBS Sports, the broadcast and business partner of the NCAA, promotes its interactive men’s backet but won’t even deign to offer an interactive women’s bracket. Legendary coach Muffet McGraw wrote on Twitter that she was tired of turning on the TV “to see ‘NCAA basketball tournament’ only to realize that of course that means men’s. Tired of seeing Twitter accounts called March Madness and Final Four that are run by the NCAA but only cover men’s bball. …”

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And we’re surprised that the weight rooms at the men’s and women’s tournaments weren’t equal?

Sometimes, the NCAA and its enablers in the sports media pretend women’s postseason basketball doesn’t exist. Just the other night, when the Rutgers men’s basketball team upset Clemson, CBS declared that it was the first Rutgers win in the tournament since 1983.

That was wrong. Rutgers has won dozens of tournament games since 1983, 36 of them in fact, including a runner-up finish in 2007. That would be the Rutgers women. CBS couldn’t have cared less, and many distinguished news organizations and members of the sports media followed right along on Twitter.

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