With March being infamous for college basketball, but this March had brought a lot of controversy. At the beginning of the college basketball tournament, the University of Oregon women’s team came out with a video showing their weight room the NCAA provided for the tournament. This “so-called” weight room consisted of just one rack of dumbbells, compared to the men’s team, which had a whole gym with machines and all. Junior basketball player, Corrie Forbes, was shocked by this video and the unfair treatment for the women’s teams. 

      “My initial reaction when I saw the NCAA women’s weight room videos was pure shock. There is clearly unequal treatment between men and women in athletics, however, this situation was so public and obvious it stunned me that they felt that was an acceptable action to take,” Forbes said. 

     The NCAA came out with a statement after the video was released claiming the reason for the rack of dumbbells instead of a full gym, was the lack of space. Another video was released by the University of Oregon women’s team, showing the available space they had for a gym. Forbes believes exposing the differences between the weight rooms was a bigger issue and needed to be done. 

     “I believe it was important to expose the differences between the women’s and men’s weight room because it represents that unequal treatment towards women in athletics is still an issue we face in today’s society. Additionally, equality in sports is something we need to continue to fight for,” Forbes said. 

     After being exposed, the NCAA came out and apologized for their mistakes and gave the women’s teams a larger weight room equal to the mens. They claimed it was nothing about gender mistreatment and corrected the mistake. 

      “When the videos first came out, I had lost some respect for the NCAA because I started viewing them as a contributor to the challenges female athletes face within the sports world. I had never seen this organization in that type of light before in my life. However I was thankful that they took accountability for their mistake, apologized, and immediately fixed the problem,” Forbes said. 

     The NCAA experienced scrutiny for their mistake but fixed the problem with creating a larger weight room for the women’s teams. However, people like Forbes can’t help to think that it was something involved with gender inequality.