NEW YORK ―Whether it’s fostering respect for diversity, discussing sports stories in the headlines or navigating the changing landscape of college sports, women play a vital role.
As the power of college football and the five conferences that dominate it play out, those involved in women’s intercollegiate athletics work to sustain the progress made in women’s sports in recent years. That was discussed at the conference “Game Changers: The Intersection of Women and Sports.”
“We are at the risk of flipping the entire collegiate model on its head,” said Anucha Browne, vice president of women’s basketball championships at the NCAA, during the panel “The Intercollegiate Challenge: Examining the Growth Prospects of Women’s Collegiate Sports.” “This increased distance between the haves and the have-nots is very concerning.
“I’m concerned for collegiate sport as a whole,” she continued. “We’ve got to get this right. We are at risk of kissing what was in place goodbye and that may have a damaging effect on many student-athletes to come. We want to make sure they continue to have an opportunity to thrive as student-athletes.”
Big East commissioner Val Ackerman said what’s unfolding now with the governance changes that are almost certain to come through in the NCAA is an attempt to balance the reality of enhanced revenues in college sport — from football and men’s basketball — against the desires of many people and institutions to hold onto the collegiate model.
“It remains to be seen what impact these rule changes are going to have as more monies get directed back into those two sports and what it will mean for the non-revenue sports,” said Ackerman. “How these new governance rules will, in fact, play out over the next year or two does remain to be seen.
