Report says NCAA makes progress on gender inequality with men's, women's basketball tourneys

The NCAA has adequately addressed nine of 23 recommendations for creating comparable NCAA tournament experiences for men's and women's basketball players, according to a progress report released Wednesday.

College sports' largest governing body hired a third party to evaluate its response to a scathing report issued almost a year ago that criticized gender inequality in the tournaments.

Among the most visible changes noted in the progress report were «March Madness» branding and increased cross-promotion for both tournaments in 2022, as well as the addition of four teams to the women's tournament to create a «First Four» event to bring it in line with the men's tournament structure.

The NCAA men's and women's basketball committees jointly rejected a recommendation to hold simultaneous Final Fours in the same city, the report said, and NCAA leadership decided against changing the Division I basketball administrative structure. That means vice president of women's basketball Lynn Holzman continues to report to senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt.

An outside firm was hired to conduct the assessment and the NCAA was honoring the firm's request to not be identified, as per company policy, NCAA Associate Director of Communications Meghan Durham told The Associated Press in an email.

«The findings of this assessment illustrate our commitment to advance gender equity at NCAA championships. Thanks to a collaborative spirit, significant accomplishments were achieved this past year,» NCAA president Mark Emmert said. «We have said it before — our work is not finished. Gender equity must remain a priority for leaders throughout college sports and we look forward to continuing to support these efforts moving forward.»

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