On Wednesday, basketball players staged the #NotNCAAProperty protest for name, image, and likeness rights. Two days later, they also started calling out the discrepancies between the men’s and women’s tournaments.

Now, their written demands and requests to the NCAA include calls for equality in women’s sports.

Unlikely Alliance

The men’s protest was a premeditated, organized call to action using March Madness as its stage. But the women’s protests were merely unplanned reactions to the dismal conditions they found upon arrival.

“The women would rather you just watch their performances,” Arizona State sports historian Victoria Jackson told FOS.

“Whereas the men are like, ‘Hey, don’t just treat us like entertainment. We want to have a conversation about the fact that the NCAA is dragging its feet around name, image, and likeness.’”

Emmert Being Difficult

Since the #NotNCAAProperty movement began last week, NCAA President Mark Emmert and athletes have engaged in a back-and-forth. 

Emmert refuses to meet with athletes during the tournament, the National College Players Association said in a statement to multiple outlets. 

Emmert has also asked to limit the number of athletes who could attend the meeting, according to an NCPA letter multiple outlets obtained.

In the letter, athletes requested to meet by Friday. “From our perspective, it’s difficult to imagine any higher priority you may have at this time,” the letter read. It was signed by Rutgers guard Geo Baker, Iowa guard Jordan Bohannon, and Michigan forward Isaiah Livers.

The NCPA hasn’t responded to requests for comment.

Accountability Loopholes

South Carolina women’s coach Dawn Staley called for a full-fledged investigation of the governing body. “Somebody needs to be held responsible,” she told reporters.

But few institutions or people can truly hold the NCAA accountable. As an example, no one stopped the NCAA from postponing NIL rights approval in January — it’s up to state and federal lawmakers to move that needle. 

And while the NCAA claims to hold itself to principles of equality, it’s not subject to Title IX laws, University of Baltimore law professor Dionne Koller told FOS. 

Emmert claims he will investigate his own organization’s lack of equity, according to a letter obtained by ESPN. 

The first discrepancy that emerged between men’s and women’s bubbles were the gyms. On Thursday, athletes posted viral photos and videos comparing the men’s sprawling weight room to the women’s lone pyramid dumbbell rack. 

As a result, fitness companies including Dick’s Sporting Goods and Tonal sprung into action.

But when they offered to send equipment to the bubble, the NCAA didn’t exactly jump at the opportunity, the two companies told FOS.

Attempts to Send Help

On Thursday evening, Dick’s asked strength coaches what kind of equipment they wished they had, a company spokesperson told FOS. The next day, Dick’s reached out to “several different executives” at the NCAA to ask if they needed equipment. By 4 p.m. ET, no one had responded. 

So they posted a tweet with a picture of masked Dick’s employees in front of three large U-Haul vans. The spokesperson said they were not only willing to send fitness equipment to the bubble, but their “trucks were loaded up and ready.” 

The NCAA still did not respond.

On Saturday morning, Dick’s tried one more time, but the NCAA told them “they had addressed the situation.”

Tonal, which sells home gyms, also tweeted that it would send their equipment to the San Antonio bubble. “This is ridiculous. Let’s one-up them,” Tonal tweeted in response to Oregon player Sedona Prince’s viral Tik Tok.

Ten Tonals arrived at the bubble “over the weekend,” a Tonal spokesperson confirmed to FOS, but they haven’t been installed yet. 

Eligibility Concern

It’s unclear whether eligibility rules would even allow athletes or the NCAA to accept help from outside companies. 

Dick’s said they didn’t ask about eligibility. They would have donated the equipment if needed, and were “open” to working with the NCAA.

As of Monday evening, Tonal said they’re currently “working through COVID protocols and association regulations to try and get them installed.”

The NCAA did not respond to a request for comment or clarification on how eligibility rules would apply.

It wasn’t just the amenities. Men’s and women’s teams weren’t even getting the same caliber of testing.

While men’s teams receive daily PCR tests, women’s teams get less accurate daily antigen tests, with PCR tests only as supplements.

Preferential Treatment

In each step of the planning process, the NCAA released updates, from location to safety protocols. But men’s information came first, and women’s updates followed weeks later. Staley said this eroded trust from the beginning.

In a statement released in January, the NCAA said men’s players would receive daily PCR tests. The women’s press release — published more than a month later — said they would also receive daily tests. But it didn’t specify what kind.

Five days later, FOS asked an NCAA spokesperson to clarify which tests women’s teams would get. They directed FOS to the aforementioned press release.

When FOS followed up seeking clarification, the spokesperson never responded.

Truth and Excuses

On March 19, as the social media firestorm grew, a report surfaced that women’s teams were, in fact, receiving antigen tests.

FOS reached out again to the NCAA to clarify. Still no response. (This was a few hours after officials apologized for weight room and food disparities.)

Later that day, UConn women’s coach Geno Auriemma confirmed the testing differences and said no one had given him a reason why.

Emmert later told three outlets that while he regretted other inequities like weight rooms, “health experts” had assured him that plans for keeping athletes safe in both bubbles were adequate.

“I’ve heard a lot of excuses from big people,” South Carolina guard Zia Cooke told reporters Friday. “I really don’t agree with that.”