News from steerage, or something

 So, remember a couple of years ago, when a seriously pissed Oregon player tweeted photos of the amenities (air quotes) provided for teams in the women's basketball Final Four?

Remember the one rack of dumbbells and yoga mats that were their weight room facilities? Remember the pre-packaged seventh-grade-cafeteria meals one player accurately called "like nice jail food"? 

Remember how they weren't even allowed official swag that said the Big Dance or March Madness, because only the men's tournament was allowed to use that branding?

Provoked a lot of outrage, all of that did -- including here on the Blob. Revealed for all time that the NCAA's primary function is to generate revenue, and the women's tournament doesn't generate nearly as much revenue as the men's, so ...

You could almost hear it, couldn't you?

Sorry, girls, you'll have to bunk down in steerage. Oh, and if we hit an iceberg and sink we'll lock these gates and keep you down there, because the lifeboats are ONLY FOR THE MEN.

Remember all that?

The NCAA doesn't. Because over the weekend it happened again, this time out in Las Vegas. 

What happened was a bunch of good Power 5 women's teams (including Indiana's excellent squad) went to play in the Las Vegas Invitational, only to find the organizers couldn't provide a few amenities that might have come in handy. Like, you know, an arena.

You could almost hear it, couldn't you?

Sorry, girls, we're hosting a tournament, but there's no place for you to play. So, here, you can play your games in this  hotel ballroom down in the basement. It's nice enough, right? Why, I bet the elementary schools you all went to didn't have anything NEARLY as nice!

Here's what the "venue" looked like. I'm serious, this was it.

Needless to say, this went over like a lead balloon. Among others, IU coach Teri Moren -- perhaps too diplomatically -- said the whole set up was "disappointing."

And here you're saying "But Mr. Blob, the NCAA wasn't in charge of this debacle. Why blame them?"

Because it's their product. The teams involved were operating under their sanction. Doesn't the organization stipulate minimum standards that must be met before an event can play host to NCAA athletic teams? Isn't there some sort of approval involved?

These are not rhetorical questions. I'm asking because I'm honestly wondering.

If the answers are all "yes," how could the NCAA have given the OK for this? And if the answers are "no," why is that? Is it because it's the women, so -- like the organizers of the Vegas tournament -- they just don't care?

Back in the early days of Title IX, the late Pat Summitt recalled, among her duties as Tennessee's head coach was driving the team van to and from away games and washing the players' uniforms. Well, thank God those days are gone.

Now they get to play games on makeshift courts in the basements of hotels. 

Progress!