For many, if not all college basketball players, the March Madness tournament is the biggest athletic event of the year. The tournament allows the top teams to compete and prove their dominance. 

This year’s the Men’s March Madness tournament has been full of upsets and surprises. Teams like Oral Roberts and Loyola surprised the country and made it to the sweet sixteen playoff games.  While other teams such as UNC (University Of North Carolina) and Ohio State did not even make it past the first round.

Long story short, many people’s brackets have been ruined. In fact, 60% of students who answered the poll put on Instagram, have had their bracket busted by these ridiculously insane upsets. 

Right now, the Final Four contenders are UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) versus Gonzaga, and Houston versus Baylor. Currently as the top prospect, Gonzaga stands undefeated with a 30-0 record. Baylor, a close second, has only lost 2 games and are 26-2. On opposite sides of the bracket, the only way these two teams could meet would be in the championship and it would be a very intense game.

For the women’s side of the bracket U of A (University of Arizona) stands against the University of Connecticut and Stanford versus South Carolina. With three of the four teams ranked number one in their division and U of A ranked third, the women’s bracket is up for grabs as anyone of these schools could take it home. 

During the Women’s tournament, a TikTok, that has since gone viral, was put out by Oregon State Women’s Basketball player, Sedona Prince. The video highlighted the injustice that Women have to face when playing sports. The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) has since been brought to the spotlight for the inequalities surrounding the resources both male and female teams were given for the tournament.

In a short video, Prince pointed out that the men’s teams had an entire gym and workout area dedicated to them while the women’s teams only had a rack of dumbbells and yoga mats. Prince goes on to say that, “if you aren’t upset by this problem, then you’re a part of it.”

Many celebrities, including the Golden State Warriors basketball player Stephen Curry, were shocked by the inequality and are calling for the NCAA to take action. 

After these inequality issues were brought to the surface, the issue was brought back to Perry and many of the female athletes believe that the teams have received equal treatment regardless of their gender. Senior Gabrielle Schwartz who plays for the girls varsity basketball team noted that “this year we’ve shared the big gym with the boys and that’s been pretty equal.” She also went on to say that, “we get all the same equipment and shooting shirts.” 

Another player, junior Dani Lavender, believes that while the school is good at catching inequalities, the “coaches realize it faster,” and that the JV teams receive a lot of “hand-me down equipment, while the boys receive newer stuff on all three levels.” 

As time progresses, gender inequality proves to continue to be an issue, it takes a team effort to be able to continuously decrease this bridge between genders and join together as a community. To be a part of the change, help support all of Perry’s teams by going to games (when plausible), fundraisers and other team events.